Q-ships and their story

a1md their
stor:^

E.KEBLE CHATTERTON

Presented to the

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY

by the

ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE
LIBRARY

1980

Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

BOOKS ON THE SEA BY
E. KEBLE CHATTERTON

HISTORICAL

SAILING SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

FORE AND AFT: THE STORY OF THE
FORE AND AFT RIG

STEAMSHIPS AND THEIR STORY

THE ROMANCE OF THE SHIP

THE STORY OF THE BRITISH NAVY

KING'S CUTTERS AND SMUGGLERS

THE ROMANCE OF PIRACY

THE OLD EAST INDIAMEN

CRUISES

DOWN CHANNEL IN THE "VIVETTE"

THROUGH HOLLAND IN THE
"VIVETTE"

0-SHIPS AND THEIR

STORY

_ ^ o r*'^

t>

BY

E. KEBLE CHATTERTON

AUTHOR OF " SAILING SHIPS AND THEIR STORY, '
LATE LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER R.N.V.R.

P^

LONDON

SIDGWICK AND JACKSON, LTD.

3. ADAM STREET. ADELPHI, W.C.
1922

i)

^4f

TO
ADMIRAL SIR LEWIS BAYLY,

C.V.O., K.C.B., K.C.M.G.,

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE IRISH COAST DURING
THE STRENUOUS YEARS OF THE SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN,
WHO BY HIS ENCOURAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE ft-SHIP SERVICE DID SO MUCH TO THWART
THE OPERATIONS OF THE ENEMY AND TO PROTECT
OUR MERCANTILE MARINE

PREFACE

The wonderful and brave story of ships and men here pre-
sented needs but the briefest introduction. The deeds will
forever remain one of the most glorious chapters in the chronicles
of the sea. No excuse is offered for adding another volume to
the literature of the war, for the subject is deserving of greater
attention than has hitherto been possible. Lord Jellicoe once
remarked that he did not think English people realized the
wonderful work which these mystery ships had done in the war,
and that in these vessels there had been displayed a spirit of
endurance, discipline, and courage the like of which the world
had never before seen.

To few naval historians, I believe, has it ever been permitted
to enjoy such complete opportunities for acquiring authentic
information as is here presented. Unquestionably the greatest
sphere of Q-ship operations was off" the south-west coast of
Ireland, owing to the fact that the enemy submarines from the
summer of 1915 to 1918 concentrated their attacks, with certain
intervals, on the shipping in the western approaches to the
British Isles. It was my good fortune during most of this
period to be at sea patrolling off" that part of Ireland. These
Q-ships were therefore familiar in their various disguises at sea
or in harbour at Berehaven and Queenstown during their well-
earned rest. Throughout this time I kept a diary, and noted
down much that would otherwise have been forgotten. Many of
the Q-ship officers were my personal friends, and I have enjoyed
the hospitality of their ships. Valuable data, too, were obtained
from officers of merchant ships who witnessed Q-ships engaging
submarines.

A considerable number of authentic manuscripts has been
examined. By the courtesy of commanding officers I have
been lent documents of priceless historical value, such as copies
of official reports and private diaries, plans, sketches, photo-
graphs, and so on. All this information has been further

vii

Vlll

PREFACE

au<Tmented by personal conversation, correspondence, and
valuable criticism. I submit, therefore, that with all these
sources of information available, and with knowledge of much
that has been published from the German side, it is possible
to offer a monograph that is at once accurate in detail and
coiTect in perspective.

' With respect to single-ship actions,' wrote James in his
monumental Naval History a hundred years ago, ' the official
documents of them are also very imperfect. The letters are
generally written an hour or so after the termination of the
contest, and, of course, before the captain has well recovered
from the fatigue and flurry it occasioned. Many captains are
far more expert at the sword than at the pen, and would sooner
fight an action than write the particulars of one.' That state-
ment is true to-day of the Q-ships, and it would have been
neffligent not to have availed oneself now of the calm and
considered version of the chief actors in the great mystery-
ship drama while they are still alive. Although the time for
secrecy has long since passed, nothing has here been included of
a confidential nature that can be of assistance to enemies past
or potential. In one instance, for political reasons and in the
interests of the service, I have made a certain omission. Those
concerned will recognize this and understand : the rest will not
notice it.

Among those who have rendered me the greatest assistance
in regard to information, advice, criticism, the loan of manu-
scripts, illustrations, and in other ways, I desire especially to
return thanks to Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, C.V.O., K.C.B.,
K.C.M.G., and Miss Voysey, C.B.E. ; to Captain F. H. Grenfell,
D.S.O., R.N., Captain Gordon Campbell, V.C, D.S.O., R.N.,
Captain W. C. O'G. Cochrane, R.N., Commander Godfrey
Herbert, D.S.O., R.N., Commander Stopford C. Douglas, R.N.,
and to Lieutenant G. H. P. Muhlhauser, R.N.R.

E. KEBLE CHATTERTON.
March, 1922.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. The Hour and the Need -
II. The Beginning of Success -

III, Q-Ship Enterprise -

IV. The Story of the ' Farnborough '
V. The ' Mystery ' Sailing Ships

VI. The 'Mary B. Mitchell' -
VII. More Sailing Ships -
VIII. Submarines and Q-Ship Tactics
IX. The Splendid ' Penshurst ' -

X. Further Developments
XI. The Good Ship ' Prize '
XII. Ships and Adventures

XIII. More Sailing-Ship Fights -

XIV. The Summit of Q-Ship Service
XV. Life on Board a Q-Ship

XVI. Q-Ships Everywhere
XVII. Ships of all Sizes -
XVIII. The Last Phase

Index

PACK
1

26

- .39
.52

- 67

- 77

- 92

- 109

- 132

- 143

- 158

- 177

- 192

- 213

- 228

- 242

- 255

273

IX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Q-Sailing-Ship Mitchell ... - Frontispiece

TO FACE PAGE

An Early Q-Ship [Antwerp) - - - • - 6
Q-Ship Anttverp ...... 6

Commander S. C. Douglas, R.N. - - - - 8

Commander G. Herbert, D.S.O., R.N. ... 8

Q-Ship Antwerp - - - - - - 12

Gun's Crew of Q-Ship Antiverj) - - - - 12

Q-Ship Redbreast - - - - - - 22

Q-Ship Baralong - - - - - - 22

Q-Ship Baralong (Two Illustrations) - - - 28

Officers of Q-Ship Farnhorough - - - - 42

Captain Gordon Campbell and Lieutenant C. G. Bonner - 42

Q-Sailing-Ship Mitchell - - - - - 68

Q-Ship Penshiirst - - - - - -114

Q-Ship Penshurst (Two Illustrations) - - - ll6

Q-Ship Penshurst (Two Illustrations) - - - 120

Captain and Officers of Q-Ship Penshurst - - - 124

Men of Q-Ship Penshuist - - - - - 124

Q-Ship Tulip - - - - - - 138

Q-Ship Tamarisk - - - - - -138

Q-Ship Cayidytuft - - - - - - 174

Q-Ship Candytuft - - - - - - 176

Q-Sailing-Ship Fresh Hope - - - - - 188

Q-Ship Record Reign - - - - - 188

Q-Sailing-Ship Rentoul - - - - - 190

Q-Sailing-Ship Rentoul (Gun Crew) - - - - 190

The Master of the Collier Farnhorough - - - 192

Q-Ship Famborough - - - - - - 192

Q-Ship Famborough - - - - - .194

Q-Ship Famborough • - - - - .196

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi

TO PACE PAGE

S.S. Lodorer ------- 196

Q-Ship Pargust - - - - - - 198

Q-Ship Sarah Jones - - - - - - 198

Q-Ship Dunraven ------ 200

Bridge of Q-Ship Dunraven ----- 202

After the Battle ------ 204

Dunraven Doomed --.-_. 206

Q-Ship Dunraven ------ 2O8

Q-Ship Dunraven - - - - - -212

Q-Ship Dunraveii - - - - - - 214

Officers and Crew of the Q-Ship Dunraven - - - 2l6

Q-Ship Barra?ica (Two Illustrations) - _ - 22O

Q-Shij) Barranca (Two Illustrations) - - - 222

Q-Ship Transformation ----- 234

Q-Ship Barranca at Sea - - - - - 234

DIAGRAMS, ETC., IN THE TEXT.

FIG. PAGE

1. Action of Baralong on August 19, 1915 - - 21

2. Action of Baralong on September 24, 1915 - - 27

3. Action of Margit on January 17, 191 6 - - 34

4. Action of Werribee on February 9, 1916 - - 37

5. Action of Famborough on April 15, 1916 - - 45

6. Action of Helgoland on October 24, 1916 - - 63

7. Action of Salvia on October 20, 19 1 6 - - 99

8. Action of Saros on November 3, 1916 - - 103

9. Action of Penshurst on November 29, I916 - - 110

10. Action of Penshurst on November 30, 1916 - - 113

11. Action of Penshurst on January 14, 1917 - - 118

12. The Humorous Side of Q-Ship Warfare - - 127

13. Famborough' s Farewell - - - - - 196

14. Action of Pargust on June 7, 1917 - - - 201

15. The Great Decision - _ - . . 2O8

16. Letter from the First Lord of the Admiralty to Captain

Gordon Campbell - - - - - 210

' The necessitie of a Historie is, as of a Sworne
Witnesse, to say the truth (in just discretion)
and nothing but the truth.'

Sariuel Purchas 271 ' Purchas His
Pilgrimes^ 1625.

Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

CHAPTER I

THE HOUR AND THE NEED

All warfare is merely a contest. In any struggle
you see the clashing of will and will, of force against
force, of brain against brain. For the impersonal
reader it is this contest which has a never-ending in-
terest. A neutral is just as keenly entertained as the
playgoer who sits watching the swaying fortunes of
the hero in the struggle of the drama. No human
being endowed with sympathetic interest, who him-
self has had to contend with difficulties, fails to be
moved by the success or disaster of the contestants in
a struggle of which the spectator has no part or lot.
If this were not so, neutral newspapers would cease to
chronicle the wars of other nations, novels would
cease to be published, and plays to be produced.

Human nature, then, being what it is, man loves to
watch his fellow-man fighting, struggling against men
or fate or circumstances. The harder the fight and
the nearer he is to losing, so much the more is the
spectator thrilled. This instinct is developed most
clearly in youth : hence juvenile fiction is one mass of
struggles, adventures, and narrow escapes. But the
instinct never dies, and how few of us can resist the
temptation to read the exciting experiences of some

'^

2 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

entirely fictional character who rushes from one
perilous situation to another ? Is there a human
being who, going along the street, would not stop to
watch a burglar being chased over roofs and chimney-
pots by police ? If you have once become interested
in a certain trial at the law courts, are you not eager
to know whether the prisoner has been acquitted or
convicted ? You despise him for his character, yet
you are fascinated by his adventures, his struggles,
his share in the particular drama, his fight against
heavy odds ; and, contrary to your own inherent sense
of justice, you almost hope he will be acquitted. In
a word, then, we delight in having before us the
adventures of our fellow humanity, partly for the
exciting pleasure which these arouse in us, but partly
also because they make us wonder what we should
have done in a similar set of circumstances. In such
vital, critical moments should we have played the
hero, or should we have fallen somehow a little short?
The following pages are an attempt to place before
the reader a series of sea struggles which are unique,
in that they had no precedent in naval history. If
you consider all the major and minor sea fights from
the earliest times to the present day ; if you think of
fleet actions, and single-ship contests, you cannot
surpass the golden story of the Q-ships. As long as
people take any interest in the untamed sea, so will
these exploits live, not rivalling but surpassing the
greatest deeds of even the Elizabethan seamen.
During the late war their exploits were, for very
necessary reasons, withheld from the knowledge of the
public. The need for secrecy has long since passed,
and it is high time that a complete account of these
so-called 'mystery ships' should be published, not
merely for the perpetuation of their wonderful achieve-

THE HOUR AND THE NEED 3

ments, but for the inspiration of the new race of sea-
men whose duty it will be to hand on the great
tradition of the sea. For, be it remembered, the
Q-ship service was representative of every species of
seamen. There were officers and men of the Royal
Navy both active and retired, of the Royal Naval
Reserve, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and men
from the Royal Fleet Reserve. From warship, bar-
racks, office, colony, pleasure yacht, fishing vessel,
liner, sailing ship, tramp steamer, and elsewhere these
seafarers went forth in unarmoured, slow-moving,
lightly-armed vessels to perform the desperate ad-
venture of acting as live-bait for a merciless enemy.
It was an exploit calling for supreme bravery, com-
bined with great fighting skill, sound seamanship, and
a highly developed imagination. The successes which
were attained were brought about by just this com-
bination, so that the officers, especially the command-
ing officers, and the men had to be hand-picked. The
slow-reasoning, hesitating type of being was useless
in a Q-ship ; equally out of place would have been
the wild, hare-brained, dashing individual whose
excess of gallantry would simply mean the loss of
ship and lives. In the ideal Q-ship captain was found
something of the virtues of the cleverest angler, the
most patient stalker, the most enterprising big-game
hunter, together with the attributes of a cool, unper-
turbed seaman, the imagination of a sensational
novelist, and the plain horse-sense of a hard business
man. In two words, the necessary endowment was
brains and bravery. It was easy enough to find at
least one of these in hundreds of officers, but it was
difficult to find among the many volunteers a plucky
fighter with a brilliant intellect. It is, of course, one
of the happy results of sea training that officer or man

4 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

learns to think and act quickly without doing foolish
things. The handling of a ship in bad weather, or in
crowded channels, or a strong tideway, or in going
alongside a quay or other ship — all this practice
makes a sailor of the man, makes him do the one and
only right thing at the right second. But it needed
' something plus ' in the Q-ship service. For six
months, for a year, she might have wandered up and
down the Atlantic, all over the submarine zone, with
never a sight of the enemy, and then, all of a sudden,
a torpedo is seen rushing straight for the ship. The
look-out man has reported it, and the officer of the
watch has caused the man at the wheel to port his
helm just in time to allow the torpedo to pass harm-
lessly under the ship's counter. It was the never-
ceasing vigilance and the cool appreciation of the
situation which had saved the ship.

But the incident is only beginning. The next
stage is to lure the enemy on, to entice him, using
your own ship as the bait. It may be one hour or
one day later, perhaps at dusk, or when the moon
gets up, or at dawn, but it is very probable that the
submarine will invisibly follow you and attack at the
most awkward time. The hours of suspense are
trying ; watch has succeeded M^atch, yet nothing
happens. The weather changes from good to bad ;
it comes on thick, it clears up again, and the clouds
cease to obhterate the sun. Then, apparently from
nowhere, shells come whizzing by, and begin to hit.
At last in the distance you see the low-lying enemy
engaging you with both his guns, firing rapidly, and
keeping discreetly out of your own guns' range.
Already some of your men have been knocked out ;
the ship has a couple of bad holes below the water-
hne, and the sea is pouring through. To add to

THE HOUR AND THE NEED 5

the anxiety a fire is reported in the forecastle, and
the next shell has made rather a mess of the funnel.
What are you going to do ? Are you going to keep
on the bluff of pretending you are an innocent mer-
chantman, or are you going to run up the White
Ensign, let down the bulwarks, and fire your guns
the moment the enemy comes within range and
bearing ? How much longer is it possible to play
with him in the hope that he will be fooled into
doing just what you would like him to do ? If your
ship is sinking, will she keep afloat just long enough
to enable you to give the knock-out blow as the
inquiring enemy comes alongside ? These are the
crucial questions which have to be answered by that
one man in command of the ship, who all the time
finds his bridge being steadily smashed to pieces by
the enemy's fire.

' If you can keep your head when all about you
Ai-e losing theirs and blaming it on you ;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too ;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting . . .'

then, one may definitely assert, you have in you
much that goes to the making of an ideal Q-ship
captain and a brave warrior. As such you might
make a first-class commanding officer of a destroyer,
a light cruiser, or even a battleship ; but something
more is required. The enemy is artful ; you must
be super-artful. You must be able to look across
the tumbling sea into his mind behind the conning
tower. What are his intentions ? What will be his
next move ? Take in by a quick mental calculation
the conditions of wind, wave, and sun. Pretend to
run away from him, so that you get these just right.
Put your ship head on to sea, so that the enemy

6 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

with his sparse freeboard is being badly washed down
and his guns' crews are thinking more of their wet
feet and legs than of accurate shooting. Then, when
you see him submerging, alter course quickly, reckon
his probable position by the time you have steadied
your ship on her course, and drop a series of depth-
charges over his track. ' If you can fill the unfor-
giving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance,
run ' ; if you have acted with true seamanship and
sound imagination, you will presently see bits of
broken wreckage, the boil of water, quantities of oil,
perhaps a couple of corpses ; and yours is the U-boat
below, my son, and a D.S.O. ; and a thousand pounds
in cash to be divided amongst the crew ; and you're a
man, my son !

That, in a few phrases, is the kind of work, and
shows the circumstances of the Q-ship in her busiest
period. As we set forth her wonderful story, so
gallant, so sad, so victorious, and yet so nerve-trying,
we shall see all manner of types engaged in this great
adventure ; but we cannot appreciate either the
successes or losses until we have seen the birth and
growth of the Q-ship idea. As this volume is the
first effort to present the subject historically, we shall
begin at the beginning by showing the causes which
created the Q-ship. We shall see the consecutive
stages of development and improvement, the evolu-
tion of new methods, and, indeed we may at once say
it, of a new type of super-seamen. How did it all
begin ?

Turn your attention back to the autumn of 1914.
It was the sinking of the three Cressys on Septem-
ber 22 by U 9 that taught Germany what a
wonderful weapon of offence she had in the sub-
marine. Five days later the first German submarine

An Early Q-ship
Q-ship "Antwerp" entering Harwich harbour.

^^^^^^^^^^ IkT"'^^

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Q-SHIP •'Ax'nvEP.p"

Commander Herbert is on the port side of the bridge, the Mercantile Chief
Officer and Quartermaster being in the foreground.

To face p. 6

THE HOUR AND THE NEED 7

penetrated the Dover Straits. This was U 18, who
actually attacked the light cruiser Attentive. But it
was not until October 20 that the first merchant ship,
the British S.S. Gliti^a in the North Sea, was sunk by
a submarine. Six days later the French S.S. Amir at
Ganteaume, with Belgian refugees, was attacked by
a German submarine. A month passed, and on
November 23 the S.S. Malacliite was attacked by
U 21, and after being on fire sank. Three days
later the S.S. Primo was sunk also by U 21. It was
thus perfectly clear that we had before us a most
difficult submarine campaign to contend with, and
that merchant ships would not be immune. On the
last day of October H.M.S. Hermes was torpedoed
off Calais, and on November 11 H.M.S. Niger had a
similar fate near Deal.

What was to be done ? The creation of what
eventually became known as the Auxiliary Patrol,
with its ever increasing force of armed yachts,
trawlers, drifters, and motor craft ; the use of de-
stroyers and our own submarines formed part of the
scheme. But even at this early stage the Q-ship
idea came into being, though not actually under
that name. Officially she was a special-service ship,
whose goings and comings were so mysterious that
even among service men such craft were spoken of in
great secrecy as mystery ships. This first mystery
ship was the S.S. Vittoria, who was commissioned on
November 29, 1914. She had all the appearance of
an ordinary merchant ship, but she was armed, and
went on patrol in the area where submarines had been
reported. It was an entirely novel idea, and very few
people knew anything about her. She never had any
luck, and was paid off early in January, 1915, without
ever having so much as sighted a submarine. The

8 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

idea of decoy ships suggested itself to various naval
officers during December, 1914, and their suggestions
reached the Admiralty. The basic plan was for the
Admiralty to take up a number of merchantmen and
fishing craft, arm them with a few light quick-firing
guns, and then send them forth to cruise in likely
submarine areas, flying neutral colours. This was
perfectly legitimate under International Law, provided
that before opening fire on the enemy the neutral
colours were lowered and the White Ensign was
hoisted. Seeing that the enemy was determined to
sink merchantmen, the obvious reply was to send
against them armed merchantmen, properly com-
missioned and armed, but outwardly resembling any-
thing but a warship. Thus it came about that on
January 27, 1915, the second decoy ship was com-
missioned. This was the Great Eastern Railway S.S.
Antwerp (originally called Vienna), which operated in
the English Channel. She was placed under the com-
mand of Lieut. -Commander Godfrey Herbert, R.N.,
one of the most experienced and able officers of our
submarine service. The choice was a happy one, for
a submarine officer would naturally in his stalking be
able to realize at once the limitations and possibilities
of his opponent. It was a most difficult task, for the
U-boats at this time were still very shy, and only took
on certainties. Neither in boats nor in personnel had
Germany yet any to spare, and there were periods
when the submarine campaign fluctuated. Thus, day
after day, week after week, went by, and Antwerp
never had any chance. The enemy was now beginning
to operate further afield, and at the end of January,
1915, for the first time, a U-boat made its way up the
Irish Sea as far as off Liverpool, and then, on Feb-
ruary 18, was inaugurated the German Submarine

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THE HOUR AND THE NEED 9

Blockade. Shipping began to be sunk in various
places, but the western end of the English Channel
was now a favourite zone, especially in the neighbour-
hood of the Scillies ; and it was with the hope of being
taken for a merchant ship that Antive7y hsid come out
from Falmouth and made her way westward. Thus,
on March 12, we see her, about three o'clock in the
afternoon, twelve miles north of the Bishop Rock
Lighthouse. A submarine^ was sighted steering in
a northerly direction for a steamer on the horizon.
Here, at length, was a chance. Twenty minutes
later, Antweiy came up to a sailing ship, and found
she had on board the officers and crew of the Eller-
man liner Andahman, which had been captured and
scuttled 25 miles W.N.W. of the Bishop Rock.
Antwerp continued her chase, and got within four
miles of the Andalusian, still afloat, but then the
submarine dived and was never sighted again. So
Antweip was never able to sink a submarine, and she
was paid off on April 5, 1915.

During the summer of 1915 there was a small
steamer called the Lyons, which one used to see in
various naval ports, and under various disguises. Her
primary object was to carry naval stores from one
port to another, but it was always her hope to fall in
with a submarine. I remember seeing her one day
alongside Pembroke Naval Dockyard, painted a certain
colour and with one funnel. A little later 1 saw her
elsewhere with a different coat of paint and a dummy
funnel added to her, so that she resembled an ocean-
going tug. Lyons also was unable to entrap the
enemy, and terminated her decoy-ship period at the
beginning of November of the same year.

1 This was U 29, which on March 18 was sunk in the North
Sea by H.M.S. Dread?iought .

10 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Thus the war had gone on for several months, and
an apparently sound idea had failed to produce a
single good result. All kinds of shipping were being
sunk, and yet the German submarines somehow could
not be persuaded to attack these disguised ships.
How was it ? Was there something in the disguise
which gave the steamers away ? Was it purely hard
luck { We cannot say definitely, but the fact remained,
and it was rather disappointing. Of course the idea
of disguise had been employed almost from the very
first days of the war ; for, in August, 1914, Admiral
Jellicoe had requested that the armed trawlers, though
commissioned, should not be painted grey like other
warships, but retain their fishing numbers and funnel
markings just as in peace time. In the early summer
of 1915, a number of disguised armed trawlers were
also sent out to the Dogger Bank in the hope of
catching an unsuspecting submarine, who might think
they were fishing. The idea had been further de-
veloped by a clever scheme involving the co-operation
of a disguised armed trawler towing a submerged
British submarine. This began in May ; on June 23
it was the means of sinking U 40, and on July 20 it
brought about the loss of U 23 ; but a few months
later this idea was thought to be played out, and came
to an end in October, 1915, though it was eventually
revived in the following summer.

Another variation of the decoy-ship principle at
this time was that employed by Admiral Startin, who
was in charge of the naval base at Granton. In view
of enemy submarines having recently held up neutral
merchant steamers in the North Sea, he disguised two
big trawlers so as to resemble small neutral merchant
ships. This was in July, 1915. So successfully was
this done that one of them actually deceived British

THE HOUR AND THE NEED 11

destroyers, who took her for a Danish cargo steamer.
The next development was further to disguise them
by adding a false deck cargo of timber, boats, and
other details, so as to resemble closely a Norwegian
cargo ship, with Norwegian colours hoisted at the
mizzen, two derricks placed on the trawler's foremast,
and Norwegian colours painted on prepared slips of
canvas placed on each side of the hull amidships.
Those who were at sea in those days will recollect
that it was customary for neutral ships to have their
national colours painted on each side of the hull in
the hope that the enemy would not mistake the ships
for Allies'. Thus cleverly disguised, the two Granton
trawlers Quickly and Gimner went into the North
Sea, armed with nothing more powerful than a
12-pounder, Admiral Startin being himself aboard one
of the ships. A large submarine was actually sighted
on July 20, and at 1,000 yards the enemy began the
action. Quickly thereupon lowered her Norwegian
flag, ran up the White Ensign, removed the painted
canvas, replied with her 12-pounder, and then with
her 6-pounder. A fine, lucky shot was seen to strike
the submarine, and much smoke was seen to issue.
Although the enemy made off and was not sunk, yet
it showed that it was possible to fool German sub-
marines by this disguise. The decoy-ship idea was
not merely sound in principle, but it was practicable
and was capable of being used as a valuable offen-
sive weapon. IMost of a year had passed since the
beginning of war, and there were no decoy ship
results to show except those which had been obtained
by British submarines working in conjunction with
disguised trawlers. However, just as the seaman
often finds the dawn preceded by a calm and followed
by a breeze, so it was to be with the decoy ships.

12 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

The dawn of a new period was about to take place,
and this was followed by such a wind of events that if
anyone had dared to doubt the value of this specialized
naval warfare it was not long before such hesitation
vanished. Disguised trawlers had in the meantime
been further successful, but there were obviously
greater possibilities for the disguised merchant ship,
the collier and tramp types especially. But this all
depended on three things : First, the right type of
ship had to be selected very carefully and with regard
to the trade route on which she would normally in
the present conditions be likely to be found. For
instance, it would have been utterly foolish to have
sent a P. and O. liner to cruise up and down the
waters of the Irish Channel or an Atlantic liner up
and down the North Sea. Secondly, having once
selected the right ship, much depended on the dock-
yard authorities responsible for seeing that she was
fitted out adequately as to her fighting capabilities,
yet externally never losing any of her essential
mercantile appearance. This meant much clever
designing, much engineering and constructive skill,
and absolute secrecy. Thirdly, the right type of
keen, subtle, patient, tough officer had to be found,
full of initiative, full of resource, with a live, eager
crew. Slackers, 'grousers,' and 'King's-hard-bargains'
were useless.

Q-SHip " Antwerp''
Showing the collapsible dummy life-raft which concealed the two l-2-i)ouuders.

Gun's Crew of Q ship "Antwerp"

Gun's crew of " Antwerp " ready to fire on a submarine. The sides of the
dummy life-raft have been collapsed to allow gnn to come into action.

To face p. 12

CHAPTER II

THE BEGINNING OF SUCCESS

We turn now to the northern mists of the Orkneys,
where the comings and goings of the Grand Fleet
were wrapped in mystery from the eyes of the world.
In order to keep the fleet in stores — coal, oil, gear,
and hundreds of other requisite items — small colliers
and tramp steamers brought their cargoes northward
to Scapa Flow. In order to avoid the North Sea
submarines, these coal and store ships used the west-
coast passage as much as possible. Now, for that
reason, and also because German submarines were
already proceeding in earnest, via the north-west of
Scotland, to the south-west Irish coast, ever since the
successful sinking of the Lusitania, it was sound
strategy on our part to send a collier to operate off
the north-western Scottish coast. That is to say,
these looked the kinds of ships a suspecting U-boat
officer would expect to meet in that particular
locality.

Under the direction of Admiral Sir Stanley Col-
ville, a handful of these little ships was, during the
summer of 1915, being fitted out for decoy work.
One of these was the collier S.S. Prince Charles^ a
little vessel of only 373 tons. In peace-time she was
commanded by her master, Mr. F. N. Maxwell, and
manned by five deckhands, two engineers, and two
firemen. These men all volunteered for what was

13

14 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

known to be a hazardous job, and were accepted. In
command was placed Lieutenant Mark Wardlaw,
R.N., and with him went Lieutenant J. G. Spencer,
R.N.R., and nine active-service ratings to man the
guns and use the rifles. She carried the weakest
of armament — only a 3-pounder and a 6-pound er,
with rifles forward and aft. Having completed her
fitting out with great secrecy, the Prince Charles left
Longhope in the evening of July 21 with orders to
cruise on routes where submarines had recently been
seen. Proceeding to the westward at her slow gait,
she saw very few vessels until July 24. It was just
6.20 p.m. when, about ten miles W.N.W. of North
Rona Island, she sighted a three-masted vessel with
one funnel, apparently stopped. A quarter of an
hour later she observed a submarine lying close to the
steamer. Here was the steel fish Prince Charles was
hoping to bait.

Pretending not to see the submarine, and keeping
on her course like a real collier. Lieutenant Wardlaw's
ship jogged quietly along, but he was closing up his
gun's crews behind their screens and the mercantile
crew were standing by ready to hoist out the ship's
boats when required. The German now started up
his oil-engines and came on at full speed towards the
Prince Charles. It had just gone seven o'clock and
the submarine was 3 miles off. The collier had
hoisted her colours and the enemy was about five
points on the bow when a German shell came whizz-
ing across. This fell 1,000 yards over. Lieutenant
Wardlaw now stopped his engines, put his ship head
on to the Atlantic swell, blew three blasts, and then
ordered the crew to get the boats out, in order to
simulate the movements of an ordinary merchant ship
in the presence of an attacking submarine.

THE BEGINNING OF SUCCESS 15

In the meantime the enemy was approaching
rapidly and fired a second shot, which fell between
the funnel and the foremast, but landed 50 yards
over. When the range was down to 600 yards
the enemy turned her broadside on to the collier and
continued firing ; and this was now the time for the
Q-ship's captain to make the big decision. Should
he maintain his pretence and continue to receive
punishment, with the possibility of losing ship and
lives in the hope that the submarine would come
nearer ? Or should he reveal his identity and risk
everything on the chance of winning all ? This was
always the critical moment when the Q-ship captain
held in his judgment the whole fate of the fight, of
the ship, and his men.

Lieutenant Wardlaw, seeing that the enemy could
not be enticed to come any nearer, took the second
alternative, and opened fire with his port guns. The
effect of this on the German was remarkable and
instantaneous ; for her gun's crew at once deserted
the gun and darted down into the conning-tower.
But whilst they were so doing, one of Prince
Charles's shells struck the submarine 20 feet abaft the
conning-tower. The enemy then came round and
showed her opposite broadside, having attempted to
dive. She now began to rise again as the collier
closed to 300 yards, and frequent hits were being
scored by the British guns. By this time the surprised
Germans had had more than enough, and were
observed to be coming out of the conning-tower, whilst
the submarine was settling down by the stern. Still
the British fire continued, and when the submarine's
bows were a long way out of the water, she took
a sudden plunge and disappeared. A large number of
men were then seen swimming about, and the Prince

16 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Charles at once made every effort to pick them up,
fifteen officers and men being thus saved out of
thirty-three.

So ended the career of U 36. She had left Heligo-
land on July 19 for a cruise of several weeks via the
North Sea, and, up till the day of meeting with
Prince Charles, had had a most successful time ; for
she had sunk eight trawlers and one steamer, and
had stopped the Danish S.S. Louise when the Prince
Charles came up. It was not until the submarine
closed the latter that U 36 saw the Englishmen
clearing away some tarpaulins on deck, and the next
moment the Germans were under fire, and the
captain gave orders to dive. By this time the
submarine had been hit several times, and as she
could not be saved, she was brought to the surface
by blowing out her tanks. The crew then took to
the sea, and the engineer officer opened the valves to
sink her, and was the last to leave. Inside, the
submarine was wrecked by Prince Charles's shells and
three men were killed, the accurate and rapid fire having
immensely impressed the Germans. Thus the first
Q-ship engagement had been everything that could be
desired, and in spite of the submarine being armed
with a 14-pounder and carrying seven torpedoes, the
U-boat had been beaten in a fair fight. Lieutenant
Mark Wardlaw received a D.S.O., two of the crew
the D.S.M., and the sum of £1,000 was awarded to
be divided among the mercantile crew.

Another of the ships fitted out under similar
auspices was the Vala, who commissioned on August 7,
1915. She was of 609 tons, and could steam at
nothing better than 8 knots. In March of the
following year she was transferred from Scapa to
Pembroke, and her career was long and eventful.

THE BEGINNING OF SUCCESS 17

In April of 1917 she was in action with a submarine,
and she beheved that one shell hit the enemy, but
the latter then submerged. One day in the middle
of August Fala left Milford Haven to cruise between
the Fastnet and the Scillies, and was last heard of in
the early hours of the following day. She was due
to arrive at Queenstown, but, as she did not return, the
Q-ship Heather was ordered to search for her in the
Bay of Biscay. For a whole week there had been a
series of gales, and it was thought that the little
steamer had foundered in the bad weather, but on
September 7 the German Government wireless
announced that ' the U-boat trap, the former English
steamer Fala,' had been sunk by a U-boat.

Besides the Fa/a and Prince Charles, three other
Q-ships were fitted out in the north. These were
the Gle7i Ida, of 786 tons ; the Duncombe, 830 tons ;
and the Fenshurst, 740 tons, and they all performed
excellent work. But before we go any further we
have to consider still another novelty in naval warfare,
or rather a strange revival. Who would have thought
that the sailing-ship would, in these days of steam,
steel, and motor, come back in the service as a man-
of-war ? At first it seems almost ludicrous to send
sail-driven craft to fight against steel, mechanically
propelled vessels. But, as we have seen, this sub-
marine warfare was not so much a matter of force
as of cleverness. It was the enemy's unimaginative
policy which brought about this reintroduction of
sail into our Navy, and this is how it all happened.

During the summer of 191.5 German submarines
in the North Sea had either attacked or destroyed a
number of neutral schooners which used to come
across with cargoes of pit-props. One used to see
these fine little ships by the dozen arriving in the

18 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Forth, for the neutral was getting an excellent return
for his trading. It annoyed the enemy that this
timber should be able to enter a British port, and so
the submarines endeavoured to terrorize the neutral
by burning or sinking the ships on voyage. It was
therefore decided to take up the 179-ton schooner
Thirza, which was lying in the Tyne. Her purchase
had to be carried out with great secrecy, lest the
enemy should be able to recognize her at sea. She
was an old vessel, having been built as far back as
1865 at Prince Edward Island, but registered at
Whitstable. She changed her name to Ready, and
began her Q-ship service at the end of August, 1915,
when soon after midnight she sailed down the Forth.
Armed with a couple of 12-pounders, having also
a motor, carrying a small deck cargo of pit-props, and
suitably disguised to resemble a neutral, this schooner,
manned by a hardy volunteer crew, used to pretend
she was coming across the North Sea, though at first
she never went many miles away from the land.
Under the various aliases of Thirza, Ready, Probus,
Eliocir, and Q 30, this old ship did splendid work,
w^hich did not end until Armistice. We shall have
occasion to refer to her again.

Who can avoid a feeling of intense admiration for
the men who, year after year, were willing and eager
to roll about the sea in a small sailing ship looking
for the enemy, well knowing that the enemy had all
the advantage of speed, handiness, and armament ?
Even the motor was not powerful, and would give her
not much more than steerage way in a calm. The
submarine could always creep up submerged, using
his periscope but now and then : the schooner, how-
ever, was a conspicuous target all the time, and her
masts and sails advertised her presence from the

THE BEGINNING OF SUCCESS 19

horizon. These Q-ship saihng men deserve much for
what they voluntarily endured. Quite apart from the
bad weather, the uncomfortable quarters on board,
the constant trimming of sheets and alteration of
course off an unlit coast, there was always the possi-
bility that some U-boat's crew would, after sinking
the schooner, cut the throats of these British seamen.
The Q-ship crews knew this, and on certain occasions
when U-boat prisoners were taken by our ships the
Germans did not conceal this fact. Life in these
sailing craft was something quite different from that
in a battleship with its wardroom, its cheery society,
and a comfortable cabin to turn into. In the latter,
with powerful turbines and all the latest navigational
instruments, bad weather meant little inconvenience.
After all it is the human element which is the decid-
ing factor, and the Q-ship service certainly wore out
officers and men at a great pace. It is indeed difficult
to imagine any kind of seafaring more exacting both
physically and nervously.

But the Navy pressed into its use also sailing
smacks, and sent them out to sea. This began at
Lowestoft in August, 1915. In that neighbourhood
submarines had been doing a great deal of damage to
the local fishing ketches, so it was decided to com-
mission four of these smacks, arm them, strengthen
their fishing crew with a few active service ratings for
working the gun, and let the craft resume their
fishing among the other smacks. With any luck at
all a German submarine should come along, and then
would follow the surprise. The original fishermen
crews w^ere only too delighted to have an opportunity
of getting their own back, and these excellent fellows
certainly were afforded some good sport. So well
did the idea work that within a very few days the

20 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

smack G. and E. engaged one submarine, and the
Inverbjon sank UB 4. During the same month
the smack Pet fought a submarine, and on Septem-
ber 7 InvcrUjon had a fight with another.

And still the Admiralty were not over optimistic
as to the capabilities of ' the decoy ship, and had
to be convinced of the real worth of this novel idea.
However, an incident happened on August 19 which
was so successful and so significant that it entirely
changed the official mind, and all kinds of craft were
suggested as suitable decoys. Some thought that oil-
tankers would have made ideal bait : so they would,
but such ships were few in number and too valuable.
Others suggested yachts, and actually these were used
for intelligence work in the Bay of Biscay. Many
other schemes, too, were brought forward, but they
were not always practicable, or had to be discarded for
particular reasons.

In March, 1915, the Admiralty had taken up the
S.S. Bar along, a typical 'three-island' tramp, as a
decoy. For nearly six months she had been cruising
about and had already steamed 12,000 miles, but
during the afternoon of August 19 she was at last to
have her chance. This was an historic day in the
submarine campaign, for in that area between the
south-west coast of Ireland and the western end of
the English Channel eight British steamers were sunk,
including the 15,801 -ton White Star liner Ai^ahic.
It is quite certain that there was more than one sub-
marine operating, and they had reaped a good harvest
on the 17th. In the hope of falling in with one of
these U-boats, the Baralong found herself in
Lat. 50.22 N., Long. 8.7 W. (that is, about a hundred
miles south of Queenstown), steering on an easterly
course. She was disguised as a United States cargo

mL^Ai shelling 'Nicosian '

•■•...A-5_

S.S. NICOSIAN

,- '\-'^^BARALONG'

ftnncfats/M range 600 yds.

%

Baraiong sighted h"
s/M 7 miles off. /*

s/m sank

% ^^^ NICOSIAN s

•^ ^ Boats

^^^- 1- — Diagram to Illustrate Approximate Movements of ' Eara-

LONG ' WHEN SHE SANK U 27 ON AUGUST 19, 1915. ThE NUMERALS

indicate Simultaneous Positions of Decuy and Submarine.

22 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

ship with American colours painted on boards on her
sides. These boards were made so that they could
be hauled in, and the ensign staff would fall away as
soon as the ship should go into action with the White
Ensign hoisted. At three in the afternoon Baralon^
sighted a steamer manoeuvring rather strangely, and
almost immediately picked up a wireless 'S.O.S.'
sio-nal from her. Baralong therefore now altered
course towards her, and the two ships were soon
steering so that they would presently meet. Then a
submarine was sighted about seven miles off heading
towards the steamer, whom she was shelling. By this
time the crew of the steamer, which was the Leyland
liner Nicosian, were rowing about in the ship's
boats, and towards these the Baralong was seen to be
approaching, but the submarine U 27, which had a
22-pounder forward of the high conning-tower, and a
similar gun aft, steered so as to come along Nicosians
port side and towards the latter's boats, apparently to
prevent Baralong rescuing the men. One who was
present told me the full story, and I made notes and a
sketch at the time. This is what happened :

As soon as the submarine was blanketed by
Nicosian, the Baralong, who was now roughly
parallel with the other two craft, struck her American
colours, hoisted the White Ensign, and trained her
guns ready for the moment when the submarine
should show herself ahead of Nicosiaris bows. In
a few seconds U 27 came along, and had the greatest
of all surprises. The range was only 600 yards, and
12 -pounder shells, accompanied by rifle fire, came
hurtling along, penetrating the craft on the water-
line below the conning-tower before the enemy could
reply. The conning-tower went up in the air, panic-
stricken Germans jumped into the sea, the submarine

Q-SHiP "Baralong"

Heroine of two famous victories over submarines. Photofiraph taken in ]\Ialta
harbour after the ship had been transferred to the Mediterranean.

Q-SHip " Kedbreast "

This vessel was commissioned as a (^-ship at the end of Maicli, J',)16, but six
months later had concluded her service in this capacity.

To fate p. 22

THE BEGINNING OF SUCCESS 23

heeled over, and in about another minute sank for
good and all. The whole incident had happened so
quickly that Nicosians people were as surprised as
they were amused. The whole of Bar along' s tactics
had been so simple yet so clever and effective ; de-
liverance from the enemy had followed the sudden
attack so dramatically, that it was not easy to realize
quite all that had happened. Nicosiaii had been
holed by the German shells, but Baralong took her
in tow and headed for Avonmouth. She was down
by the head and the tow-rope parted during the night,
but she managed to get to port all right.

The sinking of this U 27 was a most useful piece
of work, for her captain, Lieut.-Commander Wegener,
was one of Germany's best submarine commanders ;
she had left Germany a fortnight before. This in-
cident, with many of its details, reached Germany
via the U.S.A.; for Nicosian was carrying a cargo
of mules from across the Atlantic to be used by our
army, and some of the muleteers were American
citizens. On their arrival back home the news came
out, and was published in the newspapers, causing
considerable sensation. The German nation was
furious and made some bitter accusations, forgetting
all the time that on this very day they had fired on
and killed fourteen of the crew of the British sub-
marine E 13, which had grounded on the Danish
island of Saltholm. All the officers, with one excep-
tion, and most of the crew of Baralong were of the
Royal Naval Reserve. A number of decorations was
made and the sum of £1,000 was awarded.

This great success in the midst of a terrible tale
of shipping losses finally convinced the authorities
of the value of the Q-ship. There was a great
shortage of tonnage at this time, for ships were being

24 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

required for carrying mules and munitions from
America, munitions to Russia, and every kind of
stores across to our armies. However, it was decided
to take up some more steamers as decoys and fit them
out in a similar manner. Thus the two tramp steamers
Zijlpha (2,917 tons) and the Lodorer (3,207 tons) were
assigned to Queenstown. The former, after doing
excellent work, was sunk on June 15, 1917 ; the
latter, commanded by the officer who eventually
became Captain Gordon Campbell, V.C., D.S.O.,
made history. Under the aliases of Farnhorough
and Q 5 she became the most famous of all the decoy
ships. Tramp steamer though she may be, she has a
career which, for adventurous fights, honourable
wounds, and imperishable glory cannot be approached
by any ship in the world, with the solitary exception,
perhaps, of the Vindictive, for, in spite of everything,
Lodorer was able at the end of the war to resume
her work in the Merchant Service. In another place
we shall soon see her exploits as a warship.

In addition to these two a few small coasting
steamers were taken up and a couple of transports,
and the work of selecting officers of dash and enter-
prise had to be undertaken with great secrecy and
discretion. Unquestionably the most suitable type
of Q-ship was the tramp, and the worst was the cross-
Channel railway steamer. The first was slow, but
could keep at sea a long time without coaling ; the
latter was fast, but wasteful of coal and had limited
bunker space. Of these railway steamers we have
already mentioned the G.E.R. Co.'s S.S. Vienna
(alias Antnoevp). Another decoy ship was the L. &
S.W.R. Co.'s S.S. Princess Ena, which was built to
run between the Channel Islands and Southampton.
She had been commissioned in May, 1915, armed

THE BEGINNING OF SUCCESS 25

with three 12-pounders, and could steam at 15 knots,
but she ceased her decoy work in the following August.
The Lyons, already referred to, was really a salvage
steamer, but much resembled a tug, especially when
she hoisted her dummy funnel. She was of 537 tons,
could steam at 11 knots, and was armed with four
12-pounders. But it was the 'three-island' tramp
type of the Bar along breed, which was so ordinary
and seen at any time in any sea, that made the ideal
Q-ship. She was of 4,192 tons, built in 1901, speed
10 knots, armed with three 12-pounders, and fitted
with a single wireless aerial which could excite no
suspicion. So skilfully was the armament of these
ships concealed that they frequently lay in harbour
close to foreign ships without revealing their true
nature. 1 have myself been all over such a ship,
commanded by one of the greatest Q-ship officers,
and entirely failed to find w^here he mounted his guns,
and yet they were on board ready for immediate use.
How much more likely would the German submarine,
lying lower down to the water, be deceived ! As
time went on and these much-feared ' trap-ships '
were scrutinized more closely, several minor but fatal
characteristics had to be remembered ; for instance,
the crew sometimes would be too smart or the signal-
man was too good with his semaphore. But these
and similar points were rectified as soon as they were
realized.

CHAPTER III

Q-SHIP ENTERPRISE

Within five weeks of her victorious fight Baralong
had done it again. After the war it was definitely-
announced in the pubUc Press that U 27 had been
sunk by H.M.S. Wyandra on August 19. Under this
name the ship's crew were awarded the sum of £185
as prize bounty, and in the same court Wyandra, her
commanding officer this time being Lieut. -Commander
A. Wilmot-Smith, R.N., was awarded £170 prize
bounty for sinking U 41 on September 24, 1915. It was
an open secret that Baralong and Wyandra were one
and the same ship, so we may as well get this matter
quite clear. Already we have seen the manner in
which this decoy sank U 27, and we shall now be
able to note very similar tactics in almost the same
locality attaining a like result under her new captain.
U 41 had left Wilhelmshaven on September 12,
this being her fourth trip. She was under the com-
mand of Lieut. -Commander Hansen, and on the 23rd
had sunk three British steamers, each of about 4,000
tons, in a position roughly eighty miles south-east of
the Fastnet. The first of these ships was the Anglo-
Columbian, which was sunk at 9.45 a.m., followed by
the Chancellor at 3 p.m., and the Hesione about four
hours later. The news of the first sinking reached
Baralong (henceforth officially known as Wyandra)
in Falmouth, so this decoy put to sea, and after

26

URBINO

Opened fire E,?'" ^/
(Ship stopped)\ rf ■

s/m shelling ship

D7 Helm put hard

'Commenced
lowering boat

/stopped^ ordered to
^ ^end papers to s/m

gy^>f hoisted signal
to stop

position when^Afdimf^A

I Position of 'BARALONG
^ on sighting s/M.

Fig. 2. — Diagram to Illustrate Approximate Movements of ' Bara-

LONG ' when she SANK U 41 ON SEPTEMBER 24, 1915. ThE LETTERS

indicate Simultaneous Positions of Decoy and Submarine.

28 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

rounding the Lizard steered a course that would,
with luck, intercept the submarine if she were operat-
ing towards Ushant, as seemed probable. So the
night passed. About 9 o'clock next morning the
British S.S. Ui'bino (6,651 tons), of the Wilson Line,
was attacked by this U 41 in a position roughly
sixty-seven miles S.W. by W. of the Bishop rock.
At 9.45 a.m. up came the Bar along, and sighted the
Urbino about eight miles ahead, on fire, stopped,
with a heavy list, and blowing off steam. It was a
fine, clear morning ; a steady course was maintained,
and the Q-ship made ready for action. Already the
Urbino's crew had been compelled to take to their
boats, and the submarine, at a range of 200 yards,
had put five shells into her,

Baralong now sighted the submarine's conning-
tower, and when about five miles away the submarine
dived, so Baralong altered course to the southward,
so as to compel the enemy, if she meant to attack, to
rise to the surface and use her oil-engines. This ruse
succeeded, for presently U 41 came to the surface
and proceeded at full speed to head the Englishman
off. Baralong now hoisted United States colours,
M'hereupon the German hoisted ' Stop instantly !'
The former obeyed, but by using the engines now
and again cleverly manoeuvred so as to close the
range. The next order from the enemy was for the
EngUshman to send his papers aboard the submarine,
the two craft being now about two and a half miles
apart. Baralong answered the signal, steamed
slowly ahead, altering very gradually towards the
enemy, and pretended to be hoisting out a boat on
the side visible to the submarine. On board the
latter the forward gun was already manned, Ober-
Leutnant Crompton being on deck in charge of the

Q-SHip " Baralong "
Showiug guu on port side of the poop and disguised crew.

Q-SHIP "Baralong"
Showing disguised marines and method of concealing the gun.

To face p. 28

Q-SHIP ENTERPRISE 29

firing. But Hansen had already been outmanoeuvred
by Wilmot-Smith, just as in the olden days the
sailing man-of-war sought to win the weather-gage.
For, having got the submarine 2 points on the
starboard bow, Baralong so steered as to keep her in
that position, and the two approached until the range
was down to 700 yards.

All this time, though every man in BaraloJig was
at his station, there was not a movement that in any
way caused the enemy to suspect. The latter was
concerned rather with the details of making quite
sure she was a neutral. It was then that Baralong
starboarded her helm so that it might appear as if she
were just swinging in order to give the ship's boat a
lee while being lowered, a perfectly natural and sea-
manlike piece of tactics. But when she had swung
sufficiently for the starboard and stern guns to bear,
down came the disguise, up went the fluttering White
Ensign, and a heavy fire at only 500 yards came
pouring forth, accompanied by rifle fire from the
marines in the well- deck aft. The enemy was taken
so completely by surprise that he got off only one
round, and this was a long way out. So smartly had
Baralongs men begun the attack that the second
round scored a direct hit at the base of the conning-
tower, and several other shells got home with deadly
precision. The Germans on deck became panic-
stricken, left their guns, and made for the conning-
tower hatch, but whilst they were doing this another
direct hit struck the conning-tower, blowing Hansen
and six men to pieces. After several more hits, U 41
Hsted to port with a heavy inclination and dived.
This submersion was useless, as she was leaking very
badly, and the main bilge-pump ceased to function.
Down she dropped to a terrible depth, the diving

30 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

tanks were blown by the compressed air, and with a
great sense of rehef the Germans who were still alive
found their craft coming to the surface. First came
the bows, and then the top of the conning- tower
showed above water, a large volume of smoke and
steam escaping, and then she disappeared for the
last time very rapidly, stern first, Ober-Leutnant
Crompton and the helmsman escaping through an
open hatchway.

After she had sunk finally a large burst of air and
oil-fuel rose to the surface, the submarine's bulkheads
having apparently burst owing to the pressure due
to the deep water, which here was 75 fathoms.
Only Crompton and the helmsman were saved, the
former having been badly wounded whilst entering
the conning-tower. All the others, consisting of five
officers and twenty-five men, were lost. In the mean-
time Urbino had sunk, too, from her shell-holes, and
Baralong picked the whole crew up from their boats
to the number of forty-two officers and men, her
master. Captain Allanson Hick, stating that his ship
was on her way from New York to Hull. Baralong,
conscious of having obtained another brilliant and
brave victory, now proceeded with her survivors to
Falmouth, where she arrived in the early hours of
the following morning. Lieut. -Commander Wilmot-
Smith was awarded the D.S.O., and Temporary
Engineer J. M. Dowie, R.N.R., received a D.S.C., a
well-deserved decoration ; for much depended on
the engineers in these ships, and they had much to
suffisr. Two of the crew received a D.S.M. each, and
the sum of £1,000 was also awarded, this being
additional to the bounty subsequently awarded in the
Prize Court.

At this stage in the world's history there is no in-

Q-SHIP ENTERPRISE 31

tention of exulting in the discomfiture and pain of
the enemy. Day after day during this period the
writer used to see the sad sight of our survivors with-
out ship or belongings other than the clothes on their
backs. It is difficult altogether to forget these inci-
dents or the unchivalrous behaviour of the enemy.
Without wishing to be vindictive, it is well to place
on record that the nineteen German sailors on the
deck of U 41 all jeered at Captain Hick in his dis-
tress, and yet although a callous enemy had been
sunk in a fair fight, this second Baralong incident
aroused in Germany a wave of horrified indignation
akin to the decoy's former exploit. The German
Press referred to the sinking of U 41 as a murderous
act, but if this were so there were to be plenty more
to follow. Happily, at last, we had found a real,
effective means of grappling with the submarine
problem. Against us were contending the finest
brains of the German Navy, and these determined
officers were not over anxious to save life, as we knew
from their behaviour at the sinking of Falaba and
Lusitania. Such craft as U 41, over 200 feet long,
with a maximum surface speed of 14 knots, but
an endurance of 5,500 miles at 10 knots, armed with
a couple of guns and eight torpedoes, w^ere formidable
foes, and any clever stratagem that could be used
against them, without infringing International Law,
was surely entirely justified. Thus, very wisely, four
colliers were fitted out that same autumn as Q- ships,
these being the Thornhill (alias Weriibee, WelUiobiie,
and WoiigaiieUa) ; the Remembrance (alias Lam-
meroo) ; Bradford City (alias Saros) ; and the
Penhallow (alias Century). These, together with
Baralong, were sent to operate in the Mediterranean,
for here the submarine campaign became very

32 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

serious just at the time when it temporarily died
down in North European waters. Diplomatic rela-
tions between Germany and the United States, con-
sequent on the sinking of the lAtsitania and then
Arabic, were becoming strained, so that Germany had
to accept the American demands for the limitation
of submarine activity. The result was that from
September 24, 1915, up to December 20, 1915, no
ships were sunk by German submarines in North
European waters, though the Mediterranean had a
different story to tell. At the end of December a
short, sharp submarine campaign was carried out off
Ireland by U-boats, and then there was quiet again
until Germany began her extended submarine cam-
paign on March 1, 1916. This in turn lasted only to
May 8, and was not resumed until July 5, 1916.

It is as well to bear these periods in mind, for
otherwise we cannot appreciate the dull, monotonous
weeks and months of cruising spent by the Q- ships
when they saw no submarine, received nothing but
vague, inaccurate reports, and had to keep their crews
from getting disappointed or eventually wondering
whether they were really doing any good in this
particular service. But as the winter passed and the
U-boats displayed their usual spring activity, the
Q-ships had their opportunities again. Before we
come to see these, let us take a glance at the work
which they were performing during the winter in the
Mediterranean, where the enemy sought to cut our
lines of communication to the Dardanelles.

In December, 1915, the steamship 3Iargit had
been fitted out as a decoy, and on January 17, 1916,
in Lat. 35.34 N., Long. 17.38 E., she was steering
west for Malta, when she received S.O.S. signals on
her wireless. The time was 9.30 a.m., and presentlj^

Q-SHIP ENTERPRISE 33

shots were seen falling close to the S.S. Baron Napier,
who was about five miles to the southward. The
captain of the Mar^it was Lieut.-Commander G. L.
Hodson, R.N., who then hoisted the Dutch ensign
and altered course towards the Baroii Napier. The
latter kept making signals that she was being shelled
and that the submarine was approaching ; but when
Margit got within a couple of miles the submarine
transferred the shelling to her. Margifs captain
conned his ship, lying prone on the bridge and peering
through the chinks in the bridge screen. In order to
lure the enemy on he pretended to abandon ship,
hoisted the international signal ' I am stopped,' and
sent away the ship's lifeboat with Sub-Lieutenant
McClure, R.N.R., in charge. The ship now had
every appearance of having been abandoned, but in
addition to the captain lying unseen on the bridge,
the guns' crews, under Lieutenant Tweedie, R.N.R.,
and a sub-lieutenant, were remaining hidden at
their stations. Riflemen were similarly placed on
the foredeck and aft.

After the ' panic party ' had been sent away in
the boat the enemy seemed fairly satisfied, ceased
shelling, dived, and then reappeared a quarter of an
hour later 800 yards away, with a couple of feet of
his periscope showing. He was now going to make
quite sure this was no trap, so, still submerged, he
came within 50 yards of Margifs port side and
then right round the ship, scrutinizing her carefully.
At length, being apparently quite convinced that all
was well, he steered for Margifs boat about a
thousand yards away and came to the surface. Three
men then appeared on the submarine's deck, the
German ensign was hoisted, and one of them waved
Majgit's boat to come alongside. This was as far as

3

34 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Lieut. -Commander Hodson deemed it advisable to
let matters go. Giving the orders to down screens,
open fire, and hoist the White Ensign, the enemy
now came under attack. One shot seemed to hit
abaft the conning -tower, and the submarine sub-
merged, so fire was ceased and Mar git proceeded to
pick up her boat. The davit-falls had only just
been hooked on when the submarine showed her
conning-tower 70 yards off, apparently in difficulties.
The Q-ship therefore opened fire once more, but

, s/M rose

^^, opened fire on ■Vm

.ji/' J, "^^ s/m disappeared

-SW. Y •-, apparentluaamagea.

A'J> J -<- -\ -* ^ ^

^■''<^ i/y^ J^'^^/m approached ship shading

y ' K^y' ^■^'^ all of periscope Stofi of connJfig tower

Fig. 3. — Diagram to Illustrate Approximate Movements of ' Margit '
IN HER Engagement with Submarine on January 17, 1916.

the enemy again submerged. Unfortunately the
submarine had not been sunk, although no effort had
been neglected. From 9.30 a.m. to about midday
officers and crew had been compelled to keep in
cramped, tiring attitudes, with very little knowledge
of what was going on ; and after he had finally dis-
appeared Margit had remained for about three hours
in the hope that he might return. By a curious
coincidence, at the time when Baron Napier was
being attacked, another steamer, the Baf^on Ardrossan^
belonging to the same owners, happened to be passing

Q-SHIP ENTERPRISE 35

and saw the shells dropping around, but as she could
steam nothing better than 3 knots slower than
Baron Napier she could not go to her assistance.
However, if the submarine had not been destroyed,
Margit had saved the Baron Napier and caused the
enemy to break off the engagement.

Mention was made just now of the Werribee (alias
Wonganella, etc.). On February 3, 1916, this ship,
which had been fitted out at Gibraltar, under the
command of Lieut. -Commander B. J. D. Guy, R.N.,
left Port Said to cruise on the Malta to Egypt trade
route. She was a steamer of 3,848 tons, and had
taken in 2,600 tons of sand as ballast. About 9 o'clock
on the morning of February 9, Werribee was steaming
along when she picked up a signal on her wireless to
the effect that the S.S. Springwell, of 5,593 tons, was
torpedoed and sinking by the head. The vessel was
soon sighted, and the last boats could be seen already
leaving the ship, the position being about sixty miles
from Crete. The weather was perfect, with a flat,
calm sea and extreme visibility — an ideal day, in fact,
for good gunnery.

But it was to be a most difficult experience, and
the incident well illustrates the problems which had
to be dealt with. About 10.15 a.m., as no submarine
could be seen, Werribee turned towards the four
boats already in the water, and hailed them for infor-
mation, then examined the condition of Springwell,
and presently turned again. All of a sudden, a great
submarine, painted like the Mediterranean pirate-ships
of ancient times, a brownish green, emerged from
the sea about 5,000 yards away on Werribee's star-
board bow, and came close up to Springwell, possibly
to prevent Wei^ribee from salving her. Alarm stations
were sounded in the Q-ship, but the submarine's men

36 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

were already running to their two guns, and opened
fire. Werribee then decided to haul round and
pretend to run away. The third shot from the enemy
hit, and it was at first feared that the explosion had dis-
abled one gun's crew, but fortunately the hit was a
little further aft. It was immediately evident to
Wei^iibee's captain that to-day the enemy was not
going to allow him to play the abandon-ship game,
but was intending to sink him straight away. The
submarine's accurate and rapid fire was clearly aimed
at Werribee's boats, and two of them were soon
riddled. It was for Lieut.-Commander Guy to make
up his mind quickly what tactics now to pursue, and
he decided to reveal the ship's true character and open
lire. This was done, and within ten seconds his 4-inch
quick-firer was in action, range 4,000 yards. After
six rounds from the Q-ship the enemy ceased firing,
and the eighth seemed to hit abaft the conning-tower.
Then she submerged in a cloud of smoke, about 11.10
a.m., this smoke screen being a favourite ruse for
escaping, and she was never seen again that day.
Werribee now turned her attention to the torpedoed
ship, but the latter was too far gone, and foundered
at 5.45 that afternoon. The men in SpringivelVs
boats were then picked up, and about 6 o'clock the
ship made for Malta. It was again sheer bad luck ; a
combination of difficult circumstances, and the tactics
of an astute German captain, had now prevented
success coming to the decoy. There was no question
about her disguise, and the captain of a merchantman
who witnessed the fight accurately spoke of Werribee
as ' an old tramp with a few patches of paint, firing
at the submarine.' Before the war we should have
thought no ship in His Majesty's Service could
possibly merit such a description as this, but strange

Fig. 4.— Diagram to Illustrate Approximatk Movements of ' Werri-
BEB ' IN Action with Submarinb on February 9, 1916.

38 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

things were happening on the seas at this time, and
it was the highest compHment so to be described.

With the experience which had been gained from
all these engagements in various areas it was possible
to form some idea of the requisite standardized equip-
ment with which Q-ships should be supplied. First
of all, inasmuch as the enemy was being better armed,
at least one modern 4-inch gun was necessary, in
addition to any 12 -pounder. Long-range action,
especially in the Mediterranean, was probable at
times, for the enemy would not always consent to
engage close to. Secondly, it was highly important
that the ship should remain afloat, even though
seriously holed. It might happen — and later on it
actually did occur — that the enemy might suppose the
ship was just about to founder, thus making it quite
safe to close her in order to read her name. Then
would come the one great chance for the Q-ship to
destroy the enemy. Therefore, to this end, it became
certain that these ships should be given cargoes of
barrels, or timber, carefully stowed, so that it would
be no easy task to sink her, and she might perhaps
even be salved.

CHAPTER IV

THE STORY OF THE ' FARNBOROUGH'

Two days before the end of February, 1916, 1 happened
to be returning from leave in England to my ship,
which was in Queenstown for boiler-cleaning. In the
Holyhead-Kingstown steamer I found myself in con-
versation with a junior lieutenant-commander, R.N.,
who also was returning to his ship at Queenstown. We
talked of many things all the way down across Ireland,
but this quiet, taciturn officer impressed me less by
what he said than by what he left unsaid, and it took
me a long time to guess the name of his ship. I
thought 1 knew most of the commanding officers of
sloops and trawlers and drifters, and so on, at work
off the south and south-west coasts of Ireland, but I
had neither seen this officer nor heard his name
before. At the beginning of the war he was unknown
to the public ; in fact, not until three weeks after the
end of this February did he win distinction, but to-
day his name is known and respected in every navy
of the world, and his career as a naval officer is different
from anything ever recorded in the pages of history.

This was Lieut.-Commander Gordon Camp-
bell, who just before the war was a lieutenant in
command of an old-fashioned destroyer based on
Devonport. On October 21, 1915 — the date is par-
ticularly fortunate as having been the 110th anni-
versary of the Battle of Trafalgar —Lieutenant

40 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Campbell commissioned the tramp steamer Lodorer
at Devonport as a Q-ship, but on passage thence to
Queenstown changed her name to Farnhorougli^ as it
had become gossip that she had been armed for special
service. Through that trying winter the little Farn-
borough endured gale after gale, and her young captain,
attired in the rig of a typical tramp skipper, with his
smart crew trained now to look slovenly yet be
mentally alert all the time, never for a moment
wavered in the belief that one day would come his
opportunity. He had organized his ship to a pitch of
perfection, and nothing was lacking except the appear-
ance of a U-boat.

On March 1,1916, the enemy renewed its submarine
campaign after lying dormant since the day when
Baralong had sunk her U41, except for the Christmas-
time temporary outburst. During the first three
weeks of March one, or more, submarine had sunk
shipping off the Irish coast to the extent of three
steamers and one sailing craft. On the morning of
March 22, Farnborough, who had come from
Queenstown, was now cruising up the w^est coast of
Ireland, the exact position being Lat. 51.54 N., Long.
10.53 W., and the time 0.40 a.m. Steaming along at
8 knots, a submarine awash was suddenly sighted
by one of the crew named Kaye, an A.B. of the Royal
Naval Reserve, about five miles away on the port
bow. After a few minutes it dived, and Farnborough
coolly took no notice but kept jogging along the
same course. The submarine had evidently deter-
mined to sink the old tramp, for twenty minutes later
she fired a torpedo which passed so close ahead of
Farnborough that bubbles were seen under the fore-
castle. Still she pretended to take no notice, and a
few minutes later the submarine broke surface about

STORY OF THE ' FARNBOROUGH ' 41

1,000 yards astern, passing from starboard to
port, then, having got on the Q- ship's port quarter,
fired a shell across the latter 's bows and partly sub-
merged.

Farnhorough now stopped her engines, blew off
steam, and the panic party, consisting of stokers and
spare men, were ordered to abandon ship ; so away
they rowed under Temporary Engineer Sub-
Eieutenant J. S. Smith, R.N.R. The enemy then
came closer until he was but 800 yards off. Not a
human being w^as visible aboard the ' abandoned '
ship, but everyone was lying concealed in expectant
readiness, yet Lieut.-Commander Campbell was
quietly watching every move of the enemy. A few
minutes later the latter, intending to sink the deserted
ship, fired a shell, but this fell 50 yards short.
Here was Farnhorouglis big opportunity that had
been awaited and longed for ever since last Trafalgar
Day ; now was the time — or never. Thus the collier
tramp declared herself a man-of-war, armed as she
was with five 12-pounders, two 6-pounders, and one
Maxim gun. One of the two ships must certainly go
to her doom, and her fate would be settled in a few
terrible moments : there would be no drawn-out
engagement, but just a \'iolent blow, and then finish.
Lieut.-Commander Campbell, in his place of conceal-
ment, knew that his men could be trusted to do the
right thing, knew that they were waiting only for
the word from him. True, the guns' crews were not
the kind of expert men you find in battleship or
cruiser. They had joined the Service after the
declaration of war, but had been trained up splendidly
by one of the ship's officers, Lieutenant W. Beswick,
R.N.R. On them much depended. If they fired
too soon, became excited, made a movement, or

'

42 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

bungled their work, they would give the whole show
away, and the sinking ship would not be the sub-
marine.

' Open fire !' came the order as the White Ensign
was hoisted, and then from the three 12-pounders
which could bear came a hail of shells, whilst Maxim
and rifle fire also rained down. The light this morn-
ing was bad, but the shooting from these newly
trained men was so good that the submarine was
badly holed by the rapid fire ; thus, slowly the enemy
began to sink. Observing this, Campbell then en-
deavoured to give her the knock-out blow, so steamed
full speed over the spot and dropped a depth charge.
This fairly shook the submarine, who next appeared
about ten yards away in an almost perpendicular
position, that portion of the craft from the bows to
the conning-tower being out of the water. A large
rent was discerned in her bow ; she was certainly
doomed, and one periscope had been hit. Wasting
none of the golden opportunity, Farnhorougfi re-
opened fire with her after gun, which put five rounds
into the base of the conning-tower at point-blank
range, so that the German sank for the last time.
Again Fariiborough steamed over the spot, and let go
two more depth charges, and presently up came a
large quantity of oil and bits of wood which covered
the sea for some distance around. So quickly perished
U 68, one of the latest submarines — a 17-knot boat,
armed with one 4*1 -inch, one 22-pounder, a machine
gun, eleven torpedoes, and with a cruising radius of
11,000 miles.

This brilliant success had a most cheering effect on
all the patrol vessels working off the Irish coast.
With careful reserve the story was breathed in ward-
rooms, and it percolated through to other stations,

Officers of Q-suip " Faenbouough "
Captain Campbell with his officers, disguised as a mercantile captain.

Q-SHiP Heroes

Captain Gordon Cami^bell. V.C . D.S.O., R.X . and Lieutenant C. G. Bonner,

Y. C. , D.S. C of Q-ship ■•Duuraven," each wearing the Victoria Cross, at the

King's Garden Party for V.C."s. (see Cha]3ter XIV. ).

To face p. 42

STORY OF THE ' FAR^^ BOROUGH ' 43

inspiring even the most bored officer to go forth and
do likewise. This victory had a most important
bearing on the future of the Q-ship service, and
officers and men were eager to take on a job
which affiarded them so much sport. It meant
something more, too. For, junior though he was,
Lieutenant-Commander became Commander Gordon
Campbell, D.S.O. ; Lieutenant W. Beswick, R.N.R.,
who had trained the guns' crew so well, and the
Engineer-I^ieutenant Loveless received each a D.S.C.,
and three of the crew the coveted D.S.M. There
followed also the usual £1,000 in addition to prize
bounty. Of the ship's complement seven of the
officers belonged to the Royal Naval Reserve, and
many of the ratings were either of that service or the
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.

Adventures are to the adventurous. In less than
a month from this event Farnborough was again
engaged with a submarine, under circumstances more
difficult than the last. One who was present at the
engagement described it to me, and though the
submarine managed afterwards to reach Germany,
she was wounded, and only just escaped total
destruction. However, this in no way detracts from
the merits of the story, which is as follows: The
scene was similar to that of the previous incident,
the exact position being Lat. 51.57 N., Long. 11.2 W.
— that is to say, off the west coast of Ireland. The
time was 6.30 in the afternoon of April 15, 1916,
and Farnborough was proceeding northward, doing
5 knots, for Commander Campbell was hoping
to intercept a German submarine which had been
reported off the Orkneys on the 13th, and was
probably coming down the west Irish coast.

At the time mentioned the sea was calm and it

44 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

was misty, but about two miles off on the starboard
quarter could be seen a steamer. Suddenly, without
warning, between the two ships a submarine broke
surface, but Commander Campbell pretended to
ignore her until she hoisted the international signal
TAF (' Bring your papers on board '). Owing to
the mist it was impossible to distinguish the flags
clearly enough to read them. However, Commander
Campbell stopped his ship Hke a terrified tramp,
blew off steam, but quietly kept her jogging ahead
so as to edge towards the enemy and avoid falling into
the trough of the heavy Atlantic swell. There was
the submarine lying full length on the surface, about
300 feet long, with a very large conning- tower amid-
ships, one gun forward, one aft, and most of the hull
painted a light grey. In reply to the German's
signal Farnborough now kept her answering pennant
at the dip and hoisted ' Cannot understand your
signal.' All this delay was valuable to the Q-ship,
for it allowed her to close the range stealthily ; and
now the submarine also came closer, with her fore-
most gun already manned. In the meantime, the
* tramp ' did what she was expected to do — hoisted the
signal ' I am sending boat with ship's papers,' and at
the same time the bridge boat was turned out (again
in command of Sub -Lieutenant J. S. Smith, R.N.R.),
and Commander Campbell was seen to hand his
papers to this officer to take over to the submarine.
It was now 6.40 p.m., and the German fired a shot
which passed over the ship, doing no direct harm, but
incidentally spoiling the whole affair. The best laid
schemes of Q-ship captains, and the most efficient
crews, occasionally go astray. One of Farnborough' s
people, hearing this gun, thought that Farnborough
had opened fire, so accordingly fired also. It was

STORY OF THE ' FARNBOROUGH ' 45

unfortunate, but there it was. This mistake forced
Commander Campbell's hand ; he at once hoisted
the White Ensign and gave the general order to fire.
The range was now about 1,000 yards, and he pro-
ceeded at full speed so as to bring his after gun
to bear, the ships becoming about in this position :

O s/m submerged
ddmdged

2iord'?'-^.^ '^•^■^'^•- /.00^'y^^' -q:;-.

"-o-.

. I FARNBOROUGH

o h ^<5. .

Duh:h SS.

'30ERAHARTA '

Fig. 5. — Diagram to Illustrate Approximate Positions of ' Farn-

BOKOUGH' and SUBilAEINE IN THE ACTION OF ApKIL 15, 1916.

The enemy had been about a point before the
FarnborougJis starboard beam, but when the action
commenced the former had been brought successfully
on the beam. The Q- ship's 12-pounders quickly got
off a score of rounds, accompanied by the 6-pounder
and the JNIaxim and rifles. Quite early the enemy
became damaged, and eventually she submerged
under the screen of smoke, a remarkably near escape
which must have made a great impression on her
crew. After dropping depth charges, Farnborough
closed the strange steamer which had been stopped
about 500 yards off, and found her to be the
Dutch S.S. Soerakarta. With true seamanlike
chivalry the Dutch captain, pitying the shabby-look-

46 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

ing tramp steamship, actually offered Commander
Campbell assistance. This neutral was bound from
the Dutch East Indies to Rotterdam, via Falmouth
and Kirkwall, and on sighting him the submarine
had hoisted the usual ' Bring your papers on board.'
The Dutchman had just lowered his boat, and was
about to row off to the German, when up came the
unkempt collier Farnborough with a white band on
her funnel, and then, to the amazement of all
beholders, from her blazed shell after shell. It was a
splendid free show, and one shell was distinctly seen
to hit the conning-tower. Two miles away from the
scene was the armed trawler hia Williams on patrol,
and as soon as she heard the firing she went to action
stations and came along at full speed. Ten minutes
later she felt a couple of shocks, so that her captain
thought she had struck something. These were, in
fact, the concussions of the two depth charges which
Farnborough had dropped.

If the submarine had escaped, at least he would be
able to warn his superiors at home that they could
never tell the difference between a ' trap-ship ' and a
genuine merchantman, and it would be safer not to
attack steamers unless they were perfectly sure.
During the rest of that year Commander Campbell
continued to cruise in Farnborough, but the summer
and autumn passed and no further luck offered
itself.

Winter followed and was almost merging into
spring, and then again this ship made history. In
another chapter this thrilling episode will be told.
In the meantime much else had happened.

One of the greatest enthusiasts of the Q-ship idea
was Vice- Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, who was in com-
mand of the Irish coast. No Q-ship officer serving

STORY OF THE ' FARNBOROUGH ' 47

under this admiral could ever complain that anything
was left undone by assistance that could have been
performed by the sagacity or advice of this Com-
mander-in-Chief. It was he who made repeated
visits to the Q-ships as they lay in Haulbowline
Dockyard, in order to see that not the smallest
important detail for efficiency was lacking. The
positions of the guns, the collapsing of the screens,
the erection of the dummy deckhouses concealing the
guns, the comfort of the personnel — nothing was too
trivial for his attention provided it aimed at the one
end of sinking the enemy. As with ships, so with
officers. With his vast knowledge of human nature,
and his glance which penetrated into a man's very
soul, he could size up the right type of volunteer for
decoy work ; then, having once selected him and sent
him to sea, he assisted him all the time whenever
wireless was advisable, and on their return to port
encouraged, advised, and rested the captains, while
the Haulbowline Dockyard paid every attention to
improving the Q-ship's fighting power. No keen,
capable officer on this station who did his job ever
failed to get his reward ; and the result of all this, and
the certain knowledge that if in extremis a Queens-
town naval ship would at once be sent to his rescue,
created such a fine spirit that an officer would almost
sooner die than return to port after making a blunder
of an engagement. By reason of this, the Queens-
town Q-ships became famous for their high standard
and achievements. In the spring of 1916 the four
experienced decoys Farnboi^ough, ZylpJia, Vala, and
Penshurst, were operating from that port. They
cruised off the south and south-west Irish coasts ;
between Milford Haven and the Scillies ; off the
western approach to the English Channel ; up the

48 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Irish Sea as far as the north of Ireland. In a few
weeks four more decoys were added to that station, so
that there were eight of them by July. They cruised
along the merchant ship courses as far out into the
Atlantic as 17° W., as far south as the middle of the
Bay of Biscay, as far east as the Isle of Wight, and
as far north as the Hebrides — in other words, just
where U-boats were likely to attack. One of these
eight was the S.S. Carrigan Head, which was com-
manded by Lieut. -Commander Godfrey Herbert,
D.S.O., R.N., late in command of the Antwerp.
CaiTigan Head was a fine ship of 4,201 tons, and,
in order to make her practically unsinkable, she was
sent to Portsmouth, where she was filled with
empty casks and timber. As may be expected
from her commander, this was a very efficient ship.
Below, the timber had been stowed in the holds with
great cleverness so that it would have been a con-
siderable time before she could ever founder. I well
remember on one occasion wandering all over the
decks of this ship, but it was quite impossible to see
where her big 4-inch and two 1 2-pound ers were
located.

That being so, it was not surprising that a sub-
marine never suspected on September 9, 1916, that
this was another ' trap-ship.' It was just before 6.30
in the evening that this steamer was sixty miles south-
west of the Lizard, when a submarine was sighted
about 2,000 yards off on the starboard bow. The
enemy had hoisted some flag signals, but they were
too small to be read. It was presumed that it was
the usual order to stop, so the steamer hove-to and
the captain called up the stokers who were off watch
to stand by the lifeboats, for all this time the sub-
marine, who had two guns, was firing at the ship.

STORY OF THE * FARNBOROUGH ' 49

Having lowered the starboard lifeboat halfway down
to the water, the Q-ship pretended to try and escape,
so went full speed ahead, turned to port, and brought
the enemy right astern. The German maintained a
rapid fire, many shots coming unpleasantly across the
bridge, one entering the forecastle and wounding two
men, of whom one afterwards died. Another shell
entered the engineers' messroom and slightly injured
Temporary Engineer Sub- Lieutenant James Purdy,
R.N.R. This same shell also cut the leads to the
wireless room just above.

As several shells fell within a few feet of the ship,
Commander Herbert decided to feign surrender,
hoisted the International Code pennant close up,
turned eight points to port, but with the real intention
of firing on the submarine, which had now risen to
the surface with complete buoyancy and presented a
good target. But in turning to port, Carrigan Head
was thus brought broadside on to the swell, so that the
ship began to roll heavily and helm had to be altered
to get her head on to the sea. At 6.50 p.m. the
enemy was about 1,500 yards away, and while both
lifeboats were being lowered the submarine kept up
an intermittent fire. Three minutes later Commander
Herbert decided to reveal the character of his ship
and attack ; therefore, going full speed ahead, he
fired seven rounds, one of which seemed to hit. The
submarine was considerably surprised and at once
dived, so having arrived near the spot Carrigan Head
dropped depth charges. The enemy was not sunk,
but she did not reappear, such was her fright, until
an hour and a half later when she sank the Norwegian
S.S. Lodsen off the Scillies. The enemy's behaviour
was typical : as soon as he was attacked he broke off
the engagement and took to flight by submerging,

50 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

and it was only on the rarest occasions that he was
willing to fight, as were the Q-ships, to a finish.

By reason of their service, Q-ship officers became
a race apart. Their arrival and departure were kept
a profound secret, night-time or early morning being
usually selected. The ships were worked as separate
units, not as squadrons, and their cruising ground
was always being changed. They went to sea in
strange garments, and when they came ashore they
usually wore ' plain clothes,' the naval equivalent for
the soldiers' expression 'mufti.' At a time when all
the nation was in arms and for a healthy man to
be seen out of uniform was to excite derisive anger,
some of the Q-ship officers had amusing and awk-
ward experiences. Arrived in port at the end of
a trying cruise, and rather looking forward to a
pleasant respite for a few days, they would run
against some old friend in a public place, and be
greeted by some such remark as, ' Why aren't you in
uniform V or ' What ship are you serving in ? I
didn't know yo7i were on this station ; come and have
a drink.' It was difficult to preserve secrecy when
such questions were asked direct by old shipmates.
Who knew but that the man two paces away was
a spy, who would endanger the lives of the Q-ship
and crew the next time they put to sea ? Surely, if
there be occasions when it is legitimate to tell a lie,
this was a justifiable one. Thus the life in this
special service was one that called for all the ability
which is usually latent in any one man. I do not
ever remember a Q-ship officer who was not some-
thing more than able. Some were killed, some were
taken prisoners by submarines, some broke down in
health ; but in no case did you ever find one who

STORY OF THE 'FARNBOROUGH ' 51

failed to realize the intense seriousness of his job
or neglected any means of keeping himself in perfect
physical health and the highest possible condition of
mental alertness. Not once could he be caught off
his guard ; the habit was ingrained in him.

CHAPTER V

THE 'MYSTERY' SAILING SHIPS

Most people would have thought that the sail-driven
decoys would have had a very short life, and that
they would speedily have succumbed. On the con-
trary, though their work was more trying and
demanded a different kind of seamanship, these
' mystery ' ships went on bravely tackling the enemy.
The Lowestoft armed smacks, for instance, during
1916 had some pretty stiff tussles, and we know
now that they thoroughly infuriated the Germans,
who threatened to have their revenge. I^ooked at
from the enemy's aspect, it certainly was annoying
to see a number of sailing smacks spread off the
coast, each obviously trawling, but not to know
which of them would in a moment cut her gear and
sink the submarine with her gun. It was just that
element of suspense which made a cautious German
officer very chary of going near these craft, whereas
he might have sunk the whole fishing fleet if he
dared. It was not merely annoying ; it was humili-
ating that a small sailing craft should have the
impertinence to contend with the super-modern ship
of a German naval officer. That, of course, was not
the way to look at the matter ; for it was a contest,
as we have seen, in which brains and bravery were
factors more decisive than anything else. The average
British fisherman is ignorant of many things which
are learnt only in nautical academies, but the last

52

THE ' MYSTERY ' SAILING SHIPS 53

you could accuse him of being is a fool or a funk.
His navigation in these sailing smacks is quaint and
primitive, but he relies in thick weather chiefly on the
nature of the sea-bed. He can almost smell his way,
and a cast of the lead confirms his surmise ; he finds
he is just where he expected to be. So with his
character. Hardened by years of fishing in all
weathers, and angered to extreme indignation during
the war by the loss of good ships and lives of his
relatives and friends, this type of man, so long as his
decoy smack had any sort of gun, was the keenest
of the keen.

One of these smacks was the l^elesia, armed only
with a 3-pounder, and commanded by Skipper W. S.
^Yharton, who did extraordinarily well in this
dangerous service. On March 23, 1916, he was
trawling roughly thirty-five miles S.E. of Lowestoft,
when about midday he sighted a submarine three
miles off, steering to the north-east. At 1.30 p.m.
the German, who was evidently one of the cautious
type, and having a careful scrutiny before attacking,
approached within 50 yards of the Telesias starboard
bow, and submerged with her periscope just show-
ing. She came back an hour later to have another
look, and again disappeared until 4.30 p.m., when she
approached from the north-east. Having got about
300 yards away she attacked, but she had not the
courage to fight on the surface a little sailing craft
built of wood. Instead, she remained submerged
and fired a torpedo. Had that hit, Telesla and her
men would have been blown to pieces ; but it just
missed the smack's bows by four feet. Skipper
Wharton at once brought his gun into action, and
fired fifteen rounds at the periscope, which was the
only part of her that could be seen, and an almost

54 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

impossible target. The enemy disappeared, but
arrived back in half an hour, and this time the
periscope showed on the starboard quarter, coming
straight for the smack, and rising out of the water
at the same time. Again she fired a torpedo, and
it seemed certain to hit, but happily it passed
40 feet astern. At a range of only 75 yards the
smack now fired a couple of shots as the enemy
showed her deck. The first shot seemed to hit the
conning-tower, and then the fore part of the hull was
observed coming out of the water. The second shot
struck between the conning-tower and the hatch,
whereupon the enemy went down by the bows,
showing her propeller. She was a big craft, judging
by the size of her conning-tower, and certainly larger
than those which had recently been sinking Lowes-
toft smacks. Skipper Wharton, whilst fishing, had
himself been chased, so he was fairly familiar with
their appearance. Whether the enemy was actually
sunk is a matter of doubt. Perhaps she was not
destroyed, although UB 13 was lost this month ; how
and where are unknown. One thing is certain, how-
ever, that the little Telesia caused her to break oflP
the engagement and disappear. The smack could do
no more, for the wind had now died right away, and
this fact demonstrated the importance of these decoy
smacks being fitted with motors, so that the craft
would be able to manoeuvre in the absence of wind ;
and this improved equipment was now in certain
cases adopted. Skipper Wharton well deserved his
D.S.C. for this incident, and two of the ship's com-
pany also received the D.S.M. The whole crew
numbered eight, consisting of Skipper Wharton, a
naval chief petty officer, a leading seaman, a marine,
an A.B., and three fishermen.

THE 'MYSTERY' SAILING SHIPS 55

On the following April 23 Telesia — this time under
the name of Hobby hawk and under the command of
Lieutenant H. W. Harvey, R.N.V.R. — together with
a similar smack named the Cheero, commanded by
Lieutenant W. F. Scott, R.N.R., put to sea from
Lowestoft. They had recently been fitted with
specially designed nets, to which were attached
mines. It had been found that with 600 yards of
these nets towing astern the smack could still sail
ahead at a speed of 3 knots. A bridle made out
of a trawler's warp was stopped down the towing
wire and from forward of the smack, so that she
would look exactly like a genuine smack when fishing
with the ordinary trawl. All that was required was
that the submarine should foul these nets astern,
when, if everything worked as it should, destruction
to the enemy would follow.

At 5.45 that afternoon, when 10 miles N.E. of the
Smith's Knoll Pillar Buoy, the nets were shot and
the batteries connected up to the net-mines. The
wind was light, so Cheero, towing away to the south-
east, was going ahead very slowly. Each of these
two smacks was fitted with a hydrophone by means
of which the beat of a vessel's engines could be
heard, the noise of a submarine's being very different
from that of reciprocating engines in a steamer.
About 7 p.m. Cheero distinctly heard on her instru-
ment the steady, quick, buzzing, unmistakable noise
of a submarine, and the noise gradually increased.
About three-quarters of an hour later the wire lead-
ing to the nets suddenly became tight and stretched
along the smack's rail. The strain eased up a little,
became tight again, then an explosion followed in
the nets, and the sounds of the submarine's engines
were never heard again. The sea was blown by the

56 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

explosion 20 feet high, and as the water was settHng
down another upheaval took place, followed by oil.
The crew remained at their stations for a few minutes
awaiting further developments, and then were ordered
to haul the nets, but a great strain was now felt, so
that instead of two men it required six. As the
second net was coming in, the whole fleet of nets
took a sharp angle down, and a small piece of steel
was brought on board. Other pieces of steel came
adrift and fell into the sea. As the third net was
being hauled in, the whole of the nets suddenly
became free and were got in quite easily, whilst the
crew remarked on the strong smell of oil. It was
found that one mine had exploded, and when the
nets were eventually further examined ashore in
Lowestoft there could be no doubt but that a sub-
marine had been blown up, and more pieces of steel,
some of considerable size, dropped out. Thus UC 3,
with all hands, was destroyed. She was one of the
small mine-layers which used to come across from
Zeebrugge fouling the shipping tracks along the East
Anglian coast with her deadly cargoes, and causing
the destruction of merchant shipping, Allied and
neutral alike. On May 1 8 of the same year Hobbyhawk
(Telesia) and a similar smack, the Revenge (alias
Fame), had a stiff encounter with a submarine in
about the same place, but there is reason to suppose
that in this case the enemy was not sunk.

This idea of commissioning sailing smacks as Q-ships
now began to be adopted in other areas. Obviously
only that kind of fishing craft could be employed
which ordinarily were wont to fish those particular
waters ; otherwise the submarine would at once have
become suspicious. Thus, at the end of May, a
couple of Brixham smacks, which usually fished out

THE 'MYSTERY' SAILING SHIPS 57

of Milford, were fitted out at Falmouth, armed each
with a 12-pounder, and then sent round to operate in
the Milford district. These were the Kermes and
Sb'umhles respectively. They were manned by a
specially selected crew, and the two commanding
officers were Lieutenant E. L. Hughes, R.N.R., and
Sub-Lieutenant J. Hayes, R.N.R. But although
they were given a good trial, these craft were not
suitable as soon as the autumn bad weather came on.
Their freeboard was too low, they heeled over too
much in the strong prevailing winds, so that it was
difficult to get the gun to bear either to windward or
leeward ; and, except when on the top of a sea, their
range of vision was limited, so before November was
out these ships ceased to be men-of-war and were
returned to their owners.

Along the Yorkshire coast is found a type of open
boat which is never seen farther north than North-
umberland and never farther south than Lincolnshire.
This is the cobble, a peculiar and rather tricky kind
of craft used by the fishermen of Whitby, Scarborough,
Bridlington, Filey, and elsewhere. They carry one
lug-sail and can be rowed, a single thole-pin taking
the place of a rowlock. The smaller type of cobble
measures 28 feet long by 2j feet deep, but the larger
type, capable of carrying nine tons, is just under
34 feet long by 4f feet deep. Here, then, was a boat
which, with her shallow draught, could with safety
sail about in the numerous minefields oft the York-
shire coast. No submarine would ever suspect these
as being anything but fishermen trying to snatch a
living. In the early summer of 1916 two of these
boats, the Thalia and Blessing, were commissioned.
They were sailing cobbles fitted with auxiliary motors,
and were sent to work south-east of the Humber in

58 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

the Silver Pit area. Here they pretended to fish,
towing 300 yards of mine-nets, 30 feet deep, in the
hope that, as had happened oiF Lowestoft, the sub-
marine would come along and be blown up. However,
they had no luck, and after a few months' service
these boats also were returned to their owners. But
in spite of this, Q-sailing-ships were still being taken
up, the difficulty being to select the right type. Even
in the Mediterranean the idea was employed. Enemy
submarines had been destroying a number of sailing
vessels, so the Admiralty purchased one local craft,
gave her a small auxiliary motor, and towed her to
Mudros, where she could be armed and equipped in
secrecy. One day she set forth from Malta in com-
pany with a British submarine, and two days later
was off the coast of Sicily. Here the sailing craft
attracted a large enemy submarine, the British sub-
marine of course watching, but submerged. Un-
fortunately, just when the enemy might have been
torpedoed, the heavy swell caused the British sub-
marine to break surface. The enemy was quick to
observe this, dived for his life, and disappeared. The
rest of the story is rather ludicrous. The British
submarine remained submerged in the hope that the
enemy would presently come to the surface, while
the sailing craft lost touch with her consort and
turned towards Malta, using her motor. The next
incident was that she sighted 6 miles astern an
unmistakable submarine, which was at once taken
for the enemy. Being without his own submarine,
the somewhat inexperienced R.N. V.R. officer in com-
mand made an error of judgment, and, abandoning
the ship, destroyed her, being subsequently picked
up by a Japanese destroyer. It was afterwards
discovered that this was our own submarine who

THE 'MYSTERY' SAILING SHIPS 59

had been working with the saiHng craft, and was now
on her way back to INI alta !

The other day, laid up hidden away at the top of
a sheltered creek in Cornwall, I came upon an in-
teresting brigantine. Somehow I felt we had met
before, but she was looking a little forlorn ; there
was no life in the ship, yet she seemed in that curious
way, which ships ha^ e in common with human beings,
to possess a powerful personality. Freights were bad,
the miners were on strike, and here was this good
little vessel lying idle, and not so much as noticed
by those who passed. Then 1 found out who she
w^as. Here was an historic ship, the famous Helgo-
land, which served right through to the end of the
war from the summer of 1916. Now she was back
in the Merchant Service, and no one seemed to care ;
yet hundreds of years hence people will write and
talk of her, as they still do of Grenville's Revenge or
the old clipper-ships Cutty Sark and Thermopylae.

Helgoland had been built in 1895 of steel and iron
at Martenshoek in Holland, where they specialize in
this kind of construction, but she was now British
owned and registered at Plymouth. She measured
122 feet 9 inches long, 23 feet 3 inches beam, drew
8 feet aft, and her tonnage was 310 burthen and 182
net. In July, 1916, this ship was lying in Liverpool
undergoing an extensive overhaul, and here she was
taken over from her owners and sent to Falmouth,
where she was fitted out forthwith as a Q-ship.
Armed with four 12-pounders and one Maxim, she
was known officially in future under the various
names of Helgoland, Horley, Brig 10, and Q 17.
Her crew were carefully chosen from the personnel
serving in Auxiliary Patrol vessels at Falmouth, with
the exception of the guns' crews ; the ship's comple-

60 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

ment consisting of two R.N.R. officers, one skipper,
one second hand, two petty officers, six Royal Navy
gunnery ratings, eight deckhands of the Trawler
Reserve, one carpenter, one steward, and one cook,
the last three being mercantile ratings. Of her two
officers one was Temporary Sub-Lieutenant W. E. L.
Sanders, R.N.R. , who, by reason of his sailing-ship
experience, was appointed as mate. This was that
gallant New Zealander who had come across the
ocean to help the Motherland, performed amazing
service in Q-ships, fought like a gentleman, won the
Victoria Cross, and eventually, with his ship and all
his crew, went to the bottom like the true hero that
he was. The story must be told in a subsequent
chapter.

When we consider the actions fought by these
topsail schooners and brigantines in the Great War
we appear almost to be dreaming, to be sent right
back to the sixteenth century, and modernity seems
to have been swept clean away. While the Grand
Fleet was unable, these sailing ships were carrying
on the warfare for which they had never been built.
In the whole of the Royal Navy there were hardly
any suitable officers nowadays who possessed practical
experience in handling schooners. This was where
the officer from the Mercantile Marine, the amateur
yachtsman, the coasting skipper, and the fisherman
became so invaluable. In these days of decaying
seamanship, when steam and motors are dominant, it
is well to set these facts down lest we forget. The
last of the naval training brigs has long since gone,
and few officers or men, even in the Merchant Service,
serve an apprenticeship under sail.

Helgoland left Falmouth after dark, September 6,
1916, on her first cruise as a man-of-war, and she had

THE ' MYSTERY ' SAILING SHIPS 61

but a few hours to wait before her first engagement
took place. Commanded by Lieutenant A. D. Blair,
R.N.R., she was on her way to Milford, and at
1.30 p.m. on the following day was only 10 miles
south of the Lizard when she sighted a submarine
on the surface 3 points on the starboard quarter.
There was an alarm bell fitted up in Helgoland which
was rung only for action stations, and, as it now
sounded, each man crept stealthily to his appointed
place. Under the command of Lieutenant W. E, L.
Sanders, R.N.R., and following his example of perfect
calmness, the guns' crews carried out their work
without flurry or excitement.

Within five minutes the enemy, from a distance of
2,000 yards, had begun shelling the brigantine. The
first shot fell 10 yards short, but the second and third
struck the foretopsail yard — how strange it seems to
use the time-honoured phrases of naval warfare for a
twentieth-century fight — one shell going right through
the yard. It happened that on this fine summer's
day there was no wind ; so here was the unlucky
Helgoland becalmed and unable to manoeuvre so as
to bring her guns to bear as required. It seemed as
if the enemy intended to lie off and shell this perfect
target with impunity, directing the fire from ahead
and astern, which was just the way the brigantine's
guns would not bear. However, after the second
shot from the submarine, the Helgoland's guns would
just bear, so Lieutenant Blair dropped his screens and
opened fire whilst still there was a chance. The
fourth round from the after gun seemed to hit the
enemy, and she immediately lurched and dived.
Lieutenant Blair then sent two of his hands aloft to
look for periscopes, and in a few minutes one was
sighted on the starboard quarter 200 yards away and

62 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

closing. Two rounds from each of the starboard
guns were therefore fired, one striking the water very
close to the periscope, which again disappeared.

Nothing further happened until half an hour later,
when a larger submarine with sail set, about the size
of a drifter's mizzen, was sighted right aft. As soon
as this U-boat bore 3 points on the port quarter,
she also was attacked, and dived under cover of her
smoke screen. The afternoon passed, and at dusk
(7 p.m.), when there was still no wind, the sound of a
submarine's motors was heard as if circling around
the brigantine. An hour later Helgoland bent her
new foretopsail, and just before 9.30 a submarine
was seen right ahead, so in the calm the Q-ship could
not get her guns to bear. Half an hour later, as
there was still no wind, Helgoland spoke an armed
trawler, who towed her back to Falmouth. Just as
the two ships were communicating, the enemy fired a
couple of torpedoes which, thanks to Helgoland's
shallow draught, passed under her amidships. So
ended the brigantine's first cruise. It was unfortu-
nate that at long range she had been compelled to
open fire and disclose her identity, but that was owing
to the calm, and subsequently she was fitted with an
auxiliary motor.

Her next fight was in much the same position,
about 20 miles S.W. of the Lizard. At 6.20 a.m.
on October 24, 1916, Helgoland, now commanded by
Lieutenant G. G. Westmore, R.N.R., was on an
E.S.E. course, the wind being S.W., force 4, and there
was a moderate sea. About a mile off on the star-
board bow was a large tramp steamer steering a
westerly course, and presently was seen a submarine
following astern of the tramp. Lieutenant Westmore
at once sent his crew to quarters, keeping all of them

Position I. ah 6-30am.

m

Q.I7. Course E.(tTue)

''^^^

S/M

'BAGOALE'

Position 2. at 6-42 a.m.
inact of hauling to wind and
opening fire on s/m.

'BA CDAU 'abandoned

-*/

Q. 17 fired S rounds

^

S/M shelling steamer

2'V'S/m

about^WOOvds.

Position 3. at 6-50 a.m
Q.I7. tacked ship and
opened pre with portions.

fired —X^^'^
1-^ rounds'

ndsSy

'BAGDALE'

Fig. 6. — Diagram to Illustrate Approximate Movements of
' Helgoland ' and Submarine on October 24, 1916.

64 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

out of sight, with the exception of the ratings who
represented the watch that ordinarily would be seen
on the deck of such a coaster. In order to pass close
to the German, the brigantine hauled to the wind,
and at 6.42 the submarine opened fire on the
steamer. As the enemy was now abeam, and only
1,000 yards to windward of the Helgoland, Lieutenant
Westmore determined that this was the opportune
moment. To wait longer would only have meant an
increase in the range ; so down went the screens and
fire was opened with the starboard guns. The second
and third shots seemed to strike the enemy amidships,
and she then dived, after firing only one round, which
passed well astern. Everything had worked well
except that the screen had jammed at the critical
moment, but Lieutenant Sanders, who was seeing
that guns and crew were ready, soon cleared it.
While he was looking after his men, and Lieutenant
Westmore was generally looking after the ship.
Skipper William Smith, R.N.R., was at the wheel
steering with marked coolness, and Skipper R. W.
Hannaford, R.N.R., w^as in charge of the sails, hand-
ling them and trimming the yards as required.

The first submarine was painted a dark colour, with
a brown sail set aft, so that at first she resembled one
of our drifters. And now a second U-boat, painted a
light colour with no sail, was seen two miles away
heading for the tramp steamer. The latter happened
to be the Admiralty transport Bagdale, whose crew
had by now abandoned her, the ship's boats being
close to the submarine. Helgoland w^ent about on
the other tack and stood towards the enemy, so as to
save the Bagdale, and at 4,000 yards fired at the sub-
marine. The latter was not hit, dived, came to the
surface and made off to the south-west, not being seen

THE * MYSTERY' SAILING SHIPS G5

after this. The brigantine stood by the abandoned
Bagdale, tacking ship at frequent intervals, so as to
prevent the submarine resuming her onslaught. Soon
after nine two trawlers were observed, and summoned
by gunfire and rockets. They were sent to pick up
the crew and to tow the transport into Falmouth.
Thus, if no submarine had been sunk, this sailing
ship had saved the steamer by frightening away the
enemy, and there were more engagements still to
follow.

By this — October, 1916 — the Q-ship service had
increased to such an extent that there were actually
forty-seven decoy craft operating. These com-
prised almost every kind of vessel, from motor
drifters to medium-sized steamers. Their success or
failure depended partly on captain and crew, but
partly on luck. Some Q-ships, as we have seen,
never sighted a U-boat; others were in action as
soon as they got out of port. The advantage of
these Q-sailing-ships was that they could keep the
sea independent of the shore for periods much longer
than the trawlers or tramps. Owing to their roomy
decks, these coasters were well suited for the erection
of dummy deckhouses to conceal the armament, and
another advantage was that, not utilizing engines or a
propeller — except when used occasionally — there was
no noise to prevent constant listening on the hydro-
phones. There was always the chance that during
the dark hours, when the enemy on his hydrophones
could not hear the sailing ship approaching, the
schooner or brigantine might suddenly surprise and
sink a submarine lying on the surface charging its
batteries. The result was that in the first week
of November another sailing craft was requisitioned.
This was the three-masted barquentine Gaelic, which

5

66 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

was then lying at Swansea loaded with 300 tons of
coal. Gaelic, who was known officially afterwards
also under the names of Gobo, Brig 11, and Q 22,
was 126 feet 8 inches long and 24 feet in the beam.
She had been built of iron in 1898, was registered at
Beaumaris, and remained in service throughout the
rest of the war. In August, 1918, she was operating
in the Bay of Biscay, and then returned to Gibraltar.
At the end of November she left ' the Rock,' reached
Falmouth by the middle of December, and then was
towed to Milford to be paid off, reconditioned, and
returned to commercial work. But before then, as
we shall presently see, she was to carry out some
first-class work. .

There is no person more conservative than the
seafaring man ; the whole history of the sailing ship
shows this clearly enough, and it is curious how one
generation is much the same as another. It was
Lord Melville who, in the early years of the nine-
teenth century, stated that it. was the duty of the
Admiralty to discourage, to the utmost of their
ability, the employment of steam vessels, as they
considered the introduction of steam was calculated
to strike a fatal blow to the naval supremacy of
Great Britain. A hundred years later, although the
Q-sailing-ship had justified herself, yet there was
a sort of conservative prejudice against her develop-
ment. ' The small sailing vessel,' complained a
distinguished admiral, ' will develop into a sailing
line-of-battle ship with an electric-light party reefing
topsails and a seaplane hidden in the foretopmen's
washdeck locker, and everybod)'^ seasick.'

Yes : there was much in common between this
flag-officer and the noble lord, in spite of the inter-
vening century.

CHAPTER VI

THE 'MARY B. MITCHELL'

It was the activities and successes of the submarines
in the western end of the EngUsh Channel that had
made these small Q-sailing-ships so desirable. The
first of these to be used in that area was the Mary B.
Mitchell. She was a three-masted topsail steel
schooner owned by Lord Penrhyn. Built at Carrick-
fergus in 1892 and registered at Beaumaris, she was
129 feet in length, and of 210 tons gross. In the
middle of April, 1916, she happened to be lying in
Falmouth with a cargo of china clay, and it was
decided to requisition her. The difficulty always was
to preserve secrecy during her fitting out, but in this
case, luckily, she had recently suffered some damage,
and this afforded an excellent excuse for paying off
the mercantile crew. A new crew was selected for
her and was trained specially for the work while she
was being got ready for her special service. She was
commissioned on JNIay 5, and left Falmouth for her
first cruise on June 2G, and then operated for a month
on end in the western approaches between Ushant, the
Irish coast, and Milford.

Her captain was Lieutenant M. Armstrong, R.N.R.,
and she was known officially as the Mitchell and Q 9.
During her cruising she sailed also under three
different neutral flags, as convenient. Armed with
three guns, her 12-pounder was hidden in a dummy

67

G8 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

collapsible house on the poop, and under each of the
two hatches was a G-pounder mounted on a swhiging
pedestal. There were also a couple of Lewis guns,
some small arms and Mills hand-grenades. In spite
of the thoroughness with which the guns were con-
cealed, the collapsible arrangements had been made so
ingeniously that all guns could be brought into action
under three seconds. Before leaving Falmouth she
was painted black with a yellow streak and bore the

name

MARY Y. JOSE

VIGO

on her hull, so as to look like a neutral. But until
she had got clear of Falmouth this inscription was
covered over with a plate bearing her real name. In
order to be able to pick up signals at sea she was
fitted with a small wireless receiving set, the wire
being easily disguised in the rigging. Rolling about
in the swell of the Atlantic or the chops of the
English Channel for four weeks at a time is apt to
get on the nerves of a crew unable to have a stretch
ashore : so in order to keep everyone on board fit and
cheery, boxing-gloves and gymnastic apparatus were
provided.

No one could deny that she was an efficient ship.
During her first cruise she used to carry out gun-trials
at night ; hatches sliding smoothly off, guns swinging
splendidly into position, and a broadside fired as soon
as the bell for action sounded. Until that bell was
pressed, none of the crew was allowed to be visible
on deck other than the normal watch. One of the
difficulties in these ships was that the decks might be
damaged with the shock of firing, but in the Mitchell
they had been so strengthened that not a seam was

THE MARY B. MITCHELL' 69

sprung nor so much as a glass cracked. You may
guess how perfect was her disguise from the following
incident. Pretending she was a Spaniard, she was
one day boarded at sea and examined by some of the
Falmouth patrol trawlers. These were completely
deceived, for even though their crews had watched
her fitting out, yet she had painted herself a different
colour the night before leaving that port. Even in
the Bay of Biscay several British transports on sight-
ing the ' Spaniard ' altered course and steamed away,
evidently suspecting she was co-operating with a
submarine.

She was back from her first cruise on July 2.5 just
before midnight and left again at midnight on
August 3-4. This time she impersonated the French
three-masted schooner Jeaiinette, a vessel of 226 tons,
registered at La Houle, for Mitchell now made a
cruise in the neighbourhood of the Channel Islands
and the western channel. During the next few
months she continued to sail about the last-mentioned
area, in the Bristol Channel near Lundy Island, and
in the Bay of Biscay, sometimes as Jeannette, some-
times as the Blaine, of St. Malo, and sometimes as the
Russian Neptun, of Riga.

It was in January, 1917, that she had an experience
which showed the fine seamanship and sound judg-
ment which were essential in the captain of such a
secret ship. His name was Lieutenant John Lawrie,
R.N.R., a man of strong personality, a real sailor, and
possessed of valuable initiative. On the evening of
January 7, Mitchell was off Berry Head, just east of
Dartmouth, when bad weather came on, and this
developed into a strong winter's gale. There was
every reason why a Q-ship should not run into the
nearest port for shelter, as her presence would lead to

70 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

awkward questions, whereas secrecy was the essence
of her existence. The gale blew its fiercest, and by
the following night Mitchell was having an alarming
time. Just after 9.30 p.m the foremast and spars
crashed over the side, carrying away her mainmast
too. She then lay-to under close-reefed mizzen. A
jury mast was rigged on the stump of the foremast,
and the wind, having veered from W. through
N.W. to N.E., she was able to set a reefed stay-
sail. It was still blowing a strong gale, with what
Lieutenant Lawrie described as a ' mountainous sea '
running, and she drifted before the gale in a south-
west direction towards Ushant,

In this predicament it was time to get assistance if
possible, and about 9.15 on the morning of the 9th
she signalled a large cargo steamer, who endeavoured
to take Mitchell in tow, but eventually had to signal
that this was impossible, and continued steaming on
her way up Channel. The schooner was now about
ten miles north of Ushant, an anxious position for
any navigator going to leeward, but Lieutenant
Lawrie considered she would drift clear. The north-
east gale showed no sign of easing up during that
evening. Signals of distress were made, a gun being
fired every few minutes as well as rocket distress
signals, and flares were kept burning ; but no answer-
ing signal came from the shore. By this time the
schooner was getting dangerously near to Ushant,
and it could not be long before she and her crew
would inevitably perish. However, she never struck,
and at 9.30 p.m. the Norwegian S.S. Sardinia spoke
her and stood by throughout the terrible night until
7 a.m. of the 10th. Then ensued a nice piece of sea-
manship when the steamer lowered into the sea a
buoy with a small line attached. This Mitchell man-

THE 'MARY B. MITCHELL' 71

aged to pick up, and the tow-line was made fast.
Sardinia then went ahead and towed her from a
position 10 miles west (True) of Creach Point until
11.15 a.m. when near Les Pierres Light. Here a
French torpedo-boat came towards them, so Lieu-
tenant Lawrie hoisted the Red Ensign ; but having
done that he was clever enough also to show the
White Ensign over the stern and in such a manner
that the Norwegian was unable to see it. The
captain of the French torpedo-boat at once under-
stood, signalled to the Norwegian to cast off and that
the torpedo-boat would take the schooner in tow.
This was done at noon, and the Sardinia was informed
that the name of the ship was the Marij B. Mitchell
of Beaumaris, Falmouth to Bristol Channel with
general cargo. It was a clever, ready answer on the
part of the British captain. The torpedo-boat took
the schooner into Brest, and at length, after being
remasted and refitted she went back to carry on her
work as a Q-ship. I submit that throughout the
whole of that gale it was a fine achievement, not
merely to have brought her through in safety, but
without revealing her identity as a warship.

A different kind of adventure was now awaiting
her. During June, 1917, she cruised about first as
the French Marie Therese, of Cette, then as the
French Eider, of St. JNIalo, her sphere of operation
being, as before, in the western end of the English
Channel, the Bay of Biscay, and near the Channel
Islands. Mitchell was now fitted with a motor, but
this was never used during daylight except when abso-
lutely necessary. It was on the twentieth of that
month, at 11.30 a.m., that she was in a position
Lat. 47.13 N., Long. 7.23 W., when she sighted the
conning-tower of a submarine 3 miles away on the

72 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

port bow. The German began firing, so Mitchell
was run up into the wind, hove-to, and ' abandoned.'
By this time the enemy was on the starboard bow
and continued firing for some time after the schooner's
boat had left the ship. Unsuspectingly the sub-
marine came closer and closer, and more and more
on the beam. Then after a short delay he proceeded
parallel with the ship, and, altering course, made as if
to go towards the Mitchell's boat lying away on the
port quarter. Suddenly he began to fire again, and
being now not more than 800 yards off and in a suit-
able position, the schooner also opened fire, the
first round from the 12-pounder appearing to hit.
Altogether seventeen rounds were fired, seven seem-
ing to be direct hits. The enemy did not reply, and
within three minutes of being hit disappeared. For-
tunately none of his score of rounds had struck the
schooner, though they burst overhead in unpleasant
proximity.

A further engagement with what was probably the
same enemy occurred later on the same day. It was
a favourite tactic for a submarine to follow a ship
after disappearing for a while, and then, having got
her hours later in a suitable position, to attack her
again. I used to hear commanding officers say that
they had certainly noticed this in regard to their own
ships, and there are not lacking actual records of these
methods, especially in the case of the slow-moving
sailing Q-ships who could be seen across the sea for a
long time ; and it was part of these tactics to carry
out this second attack just before night came on.
Thus at 6.10 p.m., being now in Lat. 47.37 N., Long.
6.38 W., Mitchell again sighted a submarine, this
time 4 miles away on the port quarter. The
schooner kept her course, the submarine overtook

THE 'MARY B. MITCHELL' 73

her, and at 6.35 again shelled the ship. After the
U-boat had fired half a dozen rapid rounds, Mitchell
was hove-to and ' abandoned,' the enemy taking up a
position well out on the port beam and firing until
the boat was quite clear of the ship. Then the
German stopped, exactly on the beam, 800 yards
away, and waited for a long time before making any
move. Suddenly he turned end on, came full speed
towards the ship, dived, and when 400 yards away
showed his periscope on the port side. Having got to
within 50 yards he went full speed ahead, star-
boarded his helm, and began to rise quickly. As soon
as the top of the conning-tower appeared and a couple
of feet of hull were showing Mitchell cleared away
and shelled him with the after 6-pounder. This
seemed to pierce the conning-tower, a large blue
flash and a volume of yellow vapour coming from the
hole. Almost simultaneously the 1 2-pounder hit the
enemy in the bows, but after this the enemy was too
far forward for the schooner's guns to bear. In a
cloud of black smoke, yellow smoke, steam, and spray,
she dived and was not seen again until 8.7 p.m. on
the surface 5 miles to the westward, just as the
'panic party' were coming back on board the
schooner. All speed was made, and the boat towed
astern on an easterly course for the French coast.
For a time the submarine followed, but then went off
to the north-eastward and remained in sight until
dark. The reader may wonder how a submarine,
having once been holed, could remain afloat : but
there are cases of undoubted authenticity where, in
spite of being seriously injured, the submarine did get
back to Germany. A remarkable instance of one
thus damaged by a Q-sailing-ship will be given in a
later chapter. But in the present case of the Mitchell,

74 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

even if she had not sunk her submarine, she had
fought two pkicky engagements, in the opinion of the
Admiralty, and the captain, Lieutenant John Lawrie,
R.N.R., akeady the possessor of a D.S.C., was now
awarded the D.S.O. — his two officers. Lieutenant
John Kerr, R.N.R., and Lieutenant T. Hughes,
R.N.R., being given eacii a D.S.C.

On the following August 3, when 20 miles south
of the Start, Mitchell had yet another engagement.
She had left Falmouth two days before as the Arius,
of Riga, then as the French Cancalais, of La Houle,
and cruised between the Lizard and the Owers, to
Guernsey, and in the neighbourhood of Ushant. At
1.45 p.m. she was sailing close-hauled on the star-
board tack, steering west ; there was a fresh breeze,
rather a rough sea, and a slight haze. Three miles
away on the starboard beam appeared a submarine,
who five minutes later began shelling the schooner.
Lawrie let his ship fall off the wind, and the shells
came bursting around, passing through sails and
rigging, so after ten minutes of this the schooner
hove- to and ' abandoned ' ship. Slowly and cautiously
the submarine approached, and when about 3,000
yards off stopped his engines, but continued to fire.
Then he came up on the decoy's starboard
beam, about 1,000 yards away ; but after fifteen
minutes of shelling from this position, Lawrie de-
cided that he could tempt the enemy no nearer.
It was now 4 p.m., so Mitchell started her motor,
cleared away all disguises, put the helm hard aport,
and so brought the enemy well on the beam, allowing
all four guns to bear. Over twenty shells were fired,
of which three or four hit the base of the conning-
tower ; but the submarine, having replied with four
shots, dived, and made off. For two hours and a

THE 'MARY B. MITCHELL' 75

quarter had this engagement been prolonged, and
the enemy must have been considerably annoyed to
have wasted seventy of his shells in this manner.
There was every reason to suppose that he had
received injuries, and though there were no fatalities
aboard the schooner, yet the latter's windlass, sails,
rigging, and deck fittings had been damaged, and
two of her men had been wounded. Lieutenant
Lawrie received for this gallant fight a bar to his
D.S.C., and a similar award was made to Lieutenant
T. Hughes.

Such, briefly, was the kind of life that was spent
month after month in these mystery sailing ships.
It was an extraordinary mixture of monotony and
the keenest excitement. From one hour to another
no man knew whether he would be alive or dead,
and the one essential thing consisted in absolute pre-
paredness and mental alertness. To be surprised by
the enemy was almost criminal ; to escape narrowly
from shipwreck, to remain unmoved under shell-fire,
to see the spars crashing down and your shipmates
laid out in great pain, to be hit and yet refusing
to hit back until the right moment, to keep a clear
head and a watchful eye, and all the time handle
your ship so that the most was got out of the wind
— all this was a part of your duty as a Q-ship man.
Officers and men believed that if their Q-ship were
torpedoed and any of them were captured, they
would be shot as francs-tireurs. German prisoners
had not hesitated to make this statement, although
I do not remember an instance where this was
carried out.

There can be no doubt but that these sailing ships
had the most strenuous and arduous task of all.
They suffered by being so useful, for the Q-steam-

76 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

ships, as a rule, did not spend more than eight days
at sea out of twelve, and then they had to come
in for coal. The schooners, as we have seen, could
keep the sea for a month, so long as they had
sufficient water and provisions. Several more were
added to the list during 1917 and 1918, and there
was never any lack of volunteers for them. The
only difficulty was, in these days of steam, in
choosing those who had had experience in sailing
craft. The revival of the sailing man-of-war was
certainly one of the many remarkable features in the
naval campaign.

CHAPTER VII

MORE SAILING SHIPS

During the ensuing months many demands were
made on the saiHng-ship man-of-war. There were
pressed into the service such vessels as the schooner
Result, the 220-ton lugger JBayard, the three-masted
schooner Prize, the motor drifter Betsy Jameson, the
ketch Sarah Colebrooke, the auxiliary schooner Glen
(alias Sidney), the brigantine Darkle, the Brown
Mouse yacht, built on the lines of a Brixham trawler,
and so on. The barquentine Merops, otherwise known
as Maracaio and Q 28, began decoy work in Feb-
ruary, 1917. She was fitted out in the Firth of
Forth with a couple of 12-pounders and a 4-inch
gun. At the end of May she had a severe engage-
ment with a submarine, and was considerably damaged
aloft. In March the 158-ton Rye motor ketch Sarah
Colebrooke was requisitioned, and sent to Portsmouth
to be fitted out, appearing in May as the Bolham.
A month later, 20 miles south of Beachy Head,
she fought a submarine, and had quite an unpleasant
time. One of the enemy's shells exploded under the
port quarter, lifting the ketch's stern high out of the
water, another exploded under the port leeboard,
sending a column of water on board, and swamping
the boat ; whilst a third burst on board, doing con-
siderable damage. She fought the submarine until
the latter disappeared, but the Bolham s motor was

77

78 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

by this time so choked with sphnters and glass that
she could not proceed to the spot where the sub-
marine had last been seen, and of course it so hap-
pened that there was no wind.

On June 8 four fishing smacks were captured and
sunk off the Start in full view of the Q-smack
Prevalent, a Brixham trawler armed with a 12-
pounder. Again it happened to be a calm, so
Prevalent, being too far away, was unable to render
assistance. After this incident it was decided to fit an
auxiliary motor in the trawler-yacht Brown Mouse,
which was doing similar service and was specially
suitable for an engine. On the following day our
friend Helgoland had another encounter, this time
off the north coast of Ireland, the exact spot being
8 miles N. by W. of Tory Island. The fight began
at 7.25 a.m., and half an hour later the submarine
obtained a direct hit on the after-gun house of the
brigantine, killing one man, wounding four ratings,
and stunning the whole of the after-guns' crews.
But Helgoland, with her charmed life, w^as not sunk,
and she shelled the submarine so fiercely that the
U-boat had to dive and disappear.

Even a private yacht was taken up for this work
in June. This was the 116-ton topsail schooner
IJsette, which had formerly belonged to the Duke of
Sutherland. She had been built as far back as 1873
with a standing bowsprit and jibboom. She was
taken from Cowes to Falmouth, where she was
commissioned in August, and armed with three
G-pounders. But this old yacht was found to leak so
much through her seams, and her construction was
so light, that she was never a success, and was paid
off in the following spring. In April, 1917, the
auxiliary schooner Sidney (alias Glen) began service

MORE SAILING SHIPS 79

as a decoy, having been requisitioned from her
owners and fitted out at Portsmouth. A crew was
selected from the Trawler Reserve, but the guns'
crews were naval. Armed with a 12-pounder and
a 3-pounder, she was fitted with wireless, and cruised
about in the English Channel, her complement con-
sisting of Lieutenant R. J. TurnbuU (R.N.R.), in
command, one sub-lieutenant (R.N.R.), one skipper
(R.N.R.), two R.N.R. seamen, one R.N.R. stoker to
run the motor, a signal rating, a wireless operator,
four R.N. ratings for the big gun, and three for the
smaller one. During the afternoon of July 10, 1917,
Glen was in combat with a submarine of the UC
type, and had lowered her boat in the customary
manner. A German officer from the conning-tower
hailed the boat, and in good English ordered her to
come alongside. This was being obeyed, when some-
thing seemed to startle the officer, who suddenly dis-
appeared into the conning-tower, and the submarine
began to dive. Glen therefore opened fire, and
distinctly saw two holes abaft the conning-tower as
the UC-boat rolled in the swell. She was not seen
again, and the Admiralty rewarded Glens captain
and Sub-Lieutenant K. Morris, R.N.R., with a
D.S.C. each.

During the month of January, 1917, the naval base
at Lowestoft called for volunteers for work described
as ' dangerous, at times rather monotonous, and not
free from discomfort.' Everyone, of course, knew
that this meant life in a Q-ship. The vessel selected
was the 122-ton three-masted topsail schooner Result,
which was owned at Barnstaple, and had in Decem-
ber come round to Lowestoft from the Bristol
Channel. Here she was fitted out and commissioned
at the beginning of February, being armed with a

80 Q-SHTPS AND THEIR STORY

couple of 12-poiinders, but also with torpedo-tubes.
As a sailing craft she was slow, unhandy, and prac-
tically unmanageable in light winds. At the best
she would lie no nearer to the wind than 5h points,
and in bad weather she was like a half-tide rock.
True, she had a Bolinders motor, but the best speed
they could thus get out of her was 2^ knots. The
result was that her officers had great difficulty in
keeping her out of the East Coast minefields, and did
not always succeed. She took in 100 tons of sand
as ballast, and a rough cabin was fashioned out
of the hold for the two officers. In command was
appointed Lieutenant P. J. Mack, R.N. (retired),
a young officer who had seen service at the Dardanelles
in the battleship Lord Nelson and in the historic
River Clyde, whence he had been invalided home.
As he was not an expert in the art of sailing, there
was selected to accompany him as second in command
Lieutenant G. H. P. Muhlhauser, R.N.R., who was
not a professional seaman, but a keen amateur yachts-
man of considerable experience, who had made some
excellent cruises in his small yacht across the North
Sea and had passed the Board of Trade examination
as master of his own yacht. The sailing master who
volunteered was an ex-schooner sailor, and her mate
also was an old blue-water seaman. The motor man
was a motor mechanic out of one of the Lowestoft
M.L.'s, and there was a trimmer from the Trawler
Reserve. She carried also a wireless operator, a
cook, a chief petty officer, deckhands, and some
Royal Naval ratings for the armament. All the
crew, consisting of twenty-two, had seen considerable
service during the war in various craft, and one of the
deckhands was in the drifter Linsdell, which was
blown up on an East Coast minefield at the commence-

MORE SAILING SHIPS 81

ment of the war. He had been then picked up by
H.M.S. Speedy, who in turn was immediately blown
up. This man survived again, and was now a volunteer
in a Q-ship. Remlfs crew were trained to go to
their ' panic stations ' at the given signal, when the
bulwarks were let down and the tarpaulins removed
from the guns, the engineer on those occasions
standing at the hatchway amusingly disguised as a
woman passenger, arrayed in a pink blouse and
a tasselled cap which had been kindly provided by a
lady ashore.

On February 9 Result was all ready as a warship,
and motored out of Lowestoft. She then disguised
herself as a neutral, affixed Dutch colours to her
topsides, and proceeded via Yarmouth Roads to the
neighbourhood of the North Hinder, the other side
of the North Sea, where the enemy was very fond
of operating. On the fifteenth of the following
month Result was cruising off the south-west end of
the Dogger Bank when she encountered UC 45 in
the morning. Lieutenant Muhlhauser, who was kind
enough to give me his account of the incident, has
described it with such vividness that I cannot do
better than present the version in his own words. It
should be added that at the time Result was steer-
ing E.S.E., and was now in the position Lat. 54.19 N.,
Long. 1.45 E. The submarine was sighted 2\ miles
astern, the wind was northerly, force 5 to 6, the sea
being 4 to 5 and rapidly rising. In other words, it
was a nasty, cold North Sea day, and one in which
it would have been most unpleasant to have been
torpedoed. The engagement was a difficult one,
as the ship had to be manceuvred so that her guns
would bear, and careful seamanship had to be used to
prevent her lying in the trough of the sea. As it

6

82 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

was, with bulwarks down, the decks and gun-wells
were awash and frequently full of water, while the
submarine, being only occasionally visible when
Result was on the top of the sea, made a target that
was anything but easy.

' By 7 a.m.,' says Lieutenant Muhlhauser, 'we had
got all the topsails off her, and at this moment the
C.O. appeared on deck and, looking aft, said, " Why,
there is a submarine !" and at the same moment it
was reported from aloft. Word was passed to the
watches below to stand by. In a few minutes came
the report of a gun. I do not know where the shell
went. The men ran to their stations, or crawled
there according to what their job was, and the ship
was brought on the wind. The submarine continued
firing at the rate of a shell every minute or there-
abouts. The C.O. then ordered the jibs to be run
down, and while this was being done a shell stranded
the foretopmast forestay, but luckily did not burst.
It went off whistling. Some of the shells were fairly
well aimed, but the bulk were either 50 or 60 yards
short or over, and at times more than that. As the
submarine kept about 2,000 yards off, tlie C.O.
ordered the boat away, with the skipper in charge.
Four hands went with him. Fle was reluctant to
go, I think, though, as a matter of fact, he ran quite
as much risk as did those remaining on board, if not
more, as he would have been in an awkward position
if by any chance the ship worked away from him and
the submarine got him. It would have been a hard
job to persuade the submariners that he was anything
but British. However, off he went in a nasty sea.
In lowering the boat we made efforts to capsize her,
but she was difficult to upset, and as the sub. was
some way off and unlikely to see the " accident," we

MORE SAILING SHIPS 83

did not waste much time on it, but let her go down
right side up. Away went the skipper and his crew,
and he admits feeHng lonely with a hostile submarine
near by and the ship and her guns working away
from him. He says he was struck wdth the beauty
of her lines, and she never appeared more attractive
to him. As a matter of fact, his was a rotten position,
which was not improved by the sub. firing at him two
or three shells, which went over and short. Evidently
the submarine, which by the way had closed to 1,000
yards as soon as the boat left the ship, wanted him
to pull towards it, instead of which he was digging
out after us manfully. INIeanwhile the ship appeared
quite deserted. Everyone was concealed. The CO.
prowled around the deck on his hands and knees,
peering through cracks and rivet holes in the bulwarks
to see how the submarine was getting on. All I
could see of him was the stern position of his body
and the soles of an enormous pair of clogs. I sat on
deck at the wheel, trying to get and keep the ship in
the wind, so as not to get too far from the boat. All
this time the submarine was firing steadily, and one
shell went through the mizzen, while others, as the
CO. reported from time to time, burst short, some
of them close. Splinters from the latter went through
the stay- and fore-sails. At 1,000 yards the ship is a
fairly big target, and tlie shooting of the Huns must
be put down as bad.

' It is all very well serving as a target at 1,000 yards,
but it is an experience which must not be too long
continued in case a lucky shot disables one. In the
present case, moreover, the wind and sea were rapidly
increasing, and we were leaving the boat in spite of
all our efforts to stop. The submarine seemed quite
determined not to come any nearer, and the CO.

84 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

decided that the moment had come for our side to
begin. Just before this one of the bulwarks, luckily
on the side away from the sub., had fallen down, and
let a deluge of water on to the decks, but this did not
affect things as far as we know.

' At the word, down fell the bulwarks, round came
the guns, and up went the White Ensign. Only the
after 12-pounder gun would bear. The first shell
struck the submarine at the junction of the conning-
tower and deck forward. The 6-pounder also fired
one shell, and hit the conning-tower. The second
shell from the big gun burst short. By the time the
smoke had cleared away the submarine had dis-
appeared. Had we sunk her or had she dipped ?
This is the point which is exercising our minds. The
CO. thinks the evidence of sinking her is not con-
clusive, but most of us think she has gone down for
ever.

' We then made for the boat, which was still
labouring after us, and got it hooked on and hoisted.
There was quite a decent-sized sea, and the hoisting
process was not very pleasant for those left in to
hook on, not to mention that they got wet from the
exhaust.

' At the time the sub. was firing, one of the officers
or crew was standing on the conning-tower rails,
probably spotting for the gunners. He was there
when the first shell struck, but was not noticed after-
wards. Very likely he had fallen into the tower, but
he may have fallen into the water.

* We certainly gave them a lesson in gunnery,
two hits out of three shots. Compare that with
their performance. Moreover, our guns had to be
swung into position, while theirs was already pointed.

' Having picked up the boat, we made for the

MORE SAILING SHIPS 85

spot where the sub. had disappeared, but could not
be sure that we had reached it. Anyway, we saw no
traces of it. We did not spend much time in search-
ing, but put the ship back on her course. The wind
and sea were by this time strong and lieavy, and
after running out for half an hour we turned and
headed west, with the idea of being near shelter if a
north-east gale, which I had predicted, came along.
As a matter of fact it did not, and my reputation as
a weather-prophet is tarnished. Our alteration of
course was made solely from weather conditions, but
it must have seemed very suspicious to a second
submarine which now arrived on the scene, and
which had probably been chasing us without our
knowing it. Instead of it chasing us, it suddenly
found us coming to meet it, and must have been
puzzled. By way of clearing the air it fired a torpedo
from a distance of about 2,000 yards, and missed us
by about 200 yards — a bad effort. It then fired three
shells at us, which also went wide. There is no doubt
that this was another, and smaller, submarine from
the first, but we did not grasp this at first, and so
without more ado we let drive at it, but unluckily
the gun missed fire twice. Fleet then opened the
breech, at some risk to himself, and drew out the
cartridge and threw it away. But this wasted time,
and when he did fire the shell went short. The
submarine had taken advantage of the pause to get
ready to dive, and did not wait for another shot, but
went under as soon as we fired.

' It was no use waiting about, as we should very
likely have been torpedoed, so we went on towards
the land.

' And so ended what the skipper calls the " Battle
of the Silver Pit," from the name of the fishing

86 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

ground where it took place. As far as it went it
was satisfactory, but we should like to be sure that
w'e sank the first. The two engagements took about
two hours. Possibly by waiting we might have done
better, but, on the other hand, we might have done
worse.'

It was eventually known that the first submarine
was UC 45, who paid the Result the compliment
of describing this ship's gunfire as well-controlled.
She got back safely to Germany. For the manner
in which the fighting had been conducted. Lieutenant
JNIack and the skipper were both mentioned in
despatches.

After the return to Lowestoft, Result was altered
in appearance and was sent off to the area where this
encounter had taken place. This time she used
Swedish colours, and called herself the l^ag. On this
voyage, whilst in the vicinity north of the North
Hinder Bank, on April 4, about 4 a.m., a submarine
w^as seen on the port bow, but disappeared. It was
so big that at first it resembled a steamer or destroyer.
Presently a periscope was seen about 4 points on
the bow, resembling a topmast, as it had a rake.
The lower portion was about 6 inches in diameter,
and a narrower stem protruded from this, terminating
in a ball, and whilst officers and crew w^atched it,
wondering whether it was the mast of a wreck or
not, it slowly dipped and vanished. This was the
submarine in the act of taking a photograph. She
then retired to a distance convenient for shelling.
There was a light westerly breeze, and the enemy
now bobbed up at intervals all round the Dag,
examining her very carefully. Lieutenant Muhl-
hauser writes of this incident :

' Then followed a pause of nearly half an hour with-

MORE SAILING SHIPS 87

out our seeing anything of him. The cook was sent

to the galley to get on with breakfast and we started

the engine. It is hardly necessary to say that as it

was particularly wanted i.t ran very badly, and,

indeed, could hardly be kept going at all. Suddenly

a shell burst near us, followed by another and

another. We could not at first tell the direction

from which they came, and thought it was from

astern, but found that the submarine had cunningly

moved away towards the sun, and had emerged

in the mist behind the path of the sun, where he

was practically invisible from our ship, while we

were lit up and must have offered a splendid target

with our white hull and sails. His shooting was very

good, and none of the shells missed us by much.

He fired rapidly, and was probably using a 4*1 -inch

semi-automatic s^un. The shells all burst on striking

• • •

the water, and the explosions had a vicious sound.

They seemed to come at a terrific speed, suggesting
a high- velocity gun. The CO. calmly walked the
deck, the skipper took the wheel, and I sat at the top
of the cabin hatchway and noted the times and
numbers of shells fired and anything else of interest.
The rest of the crew were at their stations, but keep-
ing below the bulwarks, except those who launched
the boat and let it tow astern. The eleventh shell
struck us just above the water-line, and soused us all
with spray which flew up above the peak of the
mainsail. It tore a hole in the side and burst in
the sand ballast, reducing the skipper's cabin to
matchwood, and destroying the wireless instrument.
It also knocked down the sides of the magazine and
set fire to the wood, starting some of the rockets
smouldering. It also smashed up the patent fire
extinguishers, and possibly the fumes from these

88 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

prevented the fire from spreading. Anyway, it was
out when we had time to see what was happening.

' In the meantime we could not afford to be hit
again, and the CO. gave the word to open fire.
Down went the bulwarks and round swung the guns,
but where was the target ? Hidden in the mist
behind the sun's path it was invisible to the gun-layers
looking through telescopes, and they were obliged to
fire into the gloom at a venture. The poor little
6-pounder was quite outranged, and it is doubtful
if the shells went more than two-thirds of the way.
The other guns had suflficient range, but it was
impossible to judge the distance or observe the fall
of the shots. However, they made a glorious and
cheering noise, and Fritz dived as soon as he could.
There is not the least reason for thinking that we
hit him. The skipper, deceived by the low freeboard
revealed when the bulwarks were down, at this stage
quickly announced the conviction that she was
sinking. Smoke was also pouring out of the hatches,
and we had two wounded men to see to : Ryder,
who was in the magazine and who was hit in the
arm, sustaining a compound fracture, and Morris,
also in the magazine, bruised in the back and suffer-
ing from shock. We were not, therefore, in a position
to continue the battle, and things looked a bit blue.
Fritz might be expected to be along in a few minutes
submerged, and he would have little difficulty in
torpedoing us, as we were very nearly a stationary
target. We had no means of warding him off except
by a depth charge. That might inconvenience him,
but it would hardly delay him long, and he could
then either torpedo us or retire out of range of our
guns and pound us to pieces, as his gun had a range
of about 5,000 yards more than ours. Sure enough

MORE SAILING SHIPS 89

he was soon after us, as we crawled along at our
4-knot gait, and raised his periscope right astern
about 200 yards off.

' We then slung over a depth charge, and had just
got our 10- feet clearance when it went off, and made
quite a creditable stir for a little 'un. Fritz promptly
disappeared to think things over, and we were
relieved of the sight of the sinister-looking periscope.
But we had only delayed things a little. He would
soon recover and adopt fresh tactics. Still, for ten
minutes we should have peace to attend to our
wounded and the damage. The CO. supervised the
bandaging of Ryder, who had been lying on deck
since he had been drawn out of the magazine. I had
passed him — passed over him, in fact — once or twice in
going forward, and thought he was dead, as he lay so
still. Then the hole in the side wanted attention,
and also the fire below. Just then the look-outs
reported the Halcyon* and two P-boats ahead coming
our way. We were extremely glad to hear them
shout out, as it meant all the difference between
being sunk and not being sunk. When the skipper
had called out " She is sinking, sir," I thought of the
number our little boat would hold, and the number
of the crew, and had reflected that my number
was up. The arrival of the Halcyon and her
attendants put a different complexion on things, and
while efforts were being made by guns to attract
their attention, I set about plugging our hole and
trying to find the fire.

' Stringer warned me that he had tried to get
below, but had found the fumes too much. By the
time I got there they must have cleared, as I did not
find them too bad. The place was full of smoke, but

* H.M.S. Halcyon, torpedo-gunboat, 1,070 tons.

90 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

though I pulled things about blindly, as it was im-
possible to see anything, I could not see any glow to
indicate a fire. Ultimately I did see a light, but on
making for it I found it was Dawes and an electric
Mght. He had entered from the mess-deck. There
appearing to be no immediate danger from fire, I
crawled round to the shot-hole and found water
coming in through rivet holes. 'I'he main hole had
been plugged from the outside by two coal-bags and
a shot-hole plug. I got tools and cut up some wood,
while AVreford cut up a coal-bag into 6-inch squares.
These Dawes and I hammered home, and made her
fairly tight.

' Meanwhile great efforts were being made to com-
municate with the Halcyon, to let them know that a
submarine was about, and to ask for a doctor. We
could not get the Halciion, but one of the P-boats
came rushing by at full speed, and asked where we
were from ! They had not recognized us ! We could
get nothing out of these ships. They rushed about
the horizon at full speed and disappeared into the
mist and came out of it again somewhere else, but
generally kept away from us, though occasionally a
P-boat tore past going " all out."

' While this circus was going on, a number ot
T.B.D.'s were reported on our starboard quarter, and
three light cruisers and then T.B.D.'s swept into
sight and seemed to fill the whole horizon. They
went on, ignoring our request for a doctor, and dis-
appeared in the mist, but their place was taken by
other T.B.D.'s. The place seemed full of them.
AVhere they all came from 1 do not know, or what
they were doing, but everywhere one looked one
could see some of these beautiful vessels rushing
along. It was a fine, stirring sight. Finally we got

MORE SAILING SHIPS 91

one of them to stop and lower a whaler with a doctor.
While she was stopped her companion ships steamed
round to ward oif attack. The doctor came on board,
and decided that Ryder ought to go in at once, and
the T.B.D. Torrent agreed to take him in when asked
by signal. So away went poor Ryder in great pain,
I fear, in spite of two morphia pills which we gave
him. The CO. was afraid that we had given him
too much, but one did not seem to do him much
good, so we gave him another one.

' While we were transshipping him, the Halcyon
came tearing past, and shouted that there was a
hostile submarine 3 miles to the southward. This,
however, did not worry us with all these T.B.D. 's
around. We were in a scene of tremendous, even
feverish, activity. There were sweepers, T.B.D. 's,
P-boats, and our own submarines all about. At
6 a.m. the world held us and a very nasty, large,
hostile submarine, which could both outrange and
outmanoeuvre us, and the game seemed up. At
6.30 a.m. we were as safe as one could wish to be,
with a considerable portion of England's light forces
around us. " Some change !" '

CHAPTER VIII

SUBMARINES AND Q-SHIP TACTICS

In order properly to appreciate the difficulties of the
Q-ships, it is necessary to understand something of
the possibilities and limitations of the U-boats. No
one could hope to be successful with his Q-ship
unless he realized what the submarine could not do,
and how he could attack the U-boat in her weakest
feature. If the submarine's greatest capability lay
in the power of rendering herself invisible, her greatest
weakness consisted in remaining thus submerged for a
comparatively short time. On the surface she could
do about 16 knots; submerged, her best speed was
about 10 knots. As the heart is the vital portion of
the human anatomy, so the battery was the vital
part of the submarine's invisibility. At the end of a
couple of hours, at the most, it was as essential for her
to rise to the surface, open her hatches, and charge
her batteries as it is for a whale or a porpoise to come
up and breathe. It was the aim, then, of all anti-
submarine craft to use every endeavour to keep the
U-boat submerged as long as possible. Those
Q-ships who could steam at 10 knots and over had a
good chance then of following the submarine's sub-
merged wake and despatching her with depth charges.
If she elected not to dive, there was nothing for it
but to tempt her within range and bearing of your
guns and then shell her. To ram was an almost

92

SUBMARINES AND Q-SHIP TACTICS 93

impossible task, though more than one submarine
was in this way destroyed.

The difficulty of anti-submarine warfare was in-
creased when the enemy became so wary that he
preferred to remain shelling the ship at long range,
and this led to our Q-ships having to be armed with
at least one 4-inch against his 4-1 -inch gun. The
famous Arnauld de la Periere, who, in spite of his
semi-French ancestry, was the ablest German sub-
marine captain in the Mediterranean, was especially
devoted to this form of tactics. Most of the German
submarines were double-hulled, the space between
the outer and inner hulls being occupied by water
ballast and oil fuel. The conning-tower was literally
a superstructure imposed over the hull, and not an
essential part of the ship. That is why, as we have
already seen, the Q-ship could shell holes into the
tower and yet the U-boat was not destroyed.
Similarly, a shell would often pierce the outer hull
and do no very serious damage other than causing a
certain amount of oil to escape. Only those who
have been in British and German submarines, and
have seen a submarine under construction, realize
what a strong craft she actually is.

The ideal submarine would weigh about the same
amount as the water surrounding her. That being a
practical impossibility, before she submerges she is
trimmed down by means of water ballast, but then
starts her engines and uses her planes for descent in
the same way as an aeroplane. The flooding tanks,
as we have seen, are between the two hulls, and the
hydroplanes are in pairs both forward and aft. The
U-boat has been running on the surface propelled by
her internal-combustion motors. Obviously these
cannot be used when she is submerged, or the air in

>TIV^

ONTAhlf'

94 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

the ship would speedily be used up. When about to
submerge, the German captain trimmed his ship
until just afloat ; actually he frequently cruised in
this trim when in the presence of shipping, ready to
dive if attacked. The alarm was then pressed, the
engineer pulled out the clutch, the coxswain con-
trolling the forward hydroplane put his helm down,
the captain entered the conning-tower, the hatch was
closed, and away the steel fish cruised about beneath
the surface.

The U-boat was now running on her electric
batteries. By means of two periscopes a view was
obtained not merely of the sea above, but also of
the sky, so that surface craft and aircraft might be
visible. The order would be given to submerge to
say 10 metres. Alongside each of the two coxswains
was a huge dial marked in metres, and it was the
sole duty of these two men to watch the dials, and
by operating a big wheel controlling each hydroplane
maintain the submarine at such a depth. Horizontal
steering was done also by a wheel, and course
kept by means of a gyroscope compass, a magnetic
compass in this steel ship with so much electricity
about being out of the question. The batteries were
charged while the submarine was on the surface by
turning the oil engines into a dynamo by means of
the clutch, the hour before dawn and the hour after
sunset being favourable times for so charging.

The reader will have noted the preliminary methods
of attack on the part of the submarine and his manner
of varying his position. He divided his attack into
two. The first was the approach, the second was the
attack proper. The former was made at a distance
of 12,000 yards, and during this time he was using
his high-power, long-range periscope, manoeuvring into

SUBMARINES AND Q-SHIP TACTICS 95

position, and ascertaining the course and speed of the
on-coming Q-ship. The attack proper was made
at 800 or 400 yards, and for this purpose the short-
range periscope was used. Now watch the U-boat
in his attempt to kill. He is to rely this time not
on long-range shelling, but on the knock-out blow by
means of his torpedo : he has endeavoured, therefore,
to get about four points on the Q-ship's bow, for this
is the very best position, and he has dived to about
00 feet. During the approach his torpedo-tubes have
been got ready, the safety-pins have been removed,
and the bow caps of the tubes opened. The captain
has already ascertained the enemy's speed and the
deflection or angle at which the torpedo-tube must
point ahead of the Q-ship at the moment of firing.
AVhen the enemy bears the correct number of degrees
of deflection the tube is fired, the periscope lowered,
speed increased, and, if the torpedo has hit the
Q-ship, the concussion will be felt in the submarine.
This depends entirely on whether the Q-ship's speed
and course have been accurately ascertained. The
torpedo has travelled at a speed of 36 knots, so,
knowing the distance to be run, the captain has only
to look at his stop-watch and reckon the time when
his torpedo should have hit. If the German was
successful he usually hoisted his periscope and cruised
under the stern of the ship to obtain her name. If
he were an experienced officer he never came near
her, after torpedoing, unless he was quite certain she
was abandoned and that she was not a trap. During
1917 and onwards, having sunk the Q-ship, the
submarine would endeavour to take the captain
prisoner, and one Q-ship captain, whose ship sank
underneath him, found himself swimming about and
heard the U-boat's officer shouting to the survivors,

96 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

' Vere is der kapitan V but the men had the good
sense to He and pretend their skipper was dead.
After this the submarine shoved oft", and my friend
took refuge with others in a small raft. But fre-
quently a submarine would wait a considerable time
cruising round the sinking ship, scrutinizing her,
examining the fittings, and expecting to find badly
hinged bulwarks, a carelessly fitted wireless aerial,
a suspicious move of a ' deckhouse ' or piece of
tarpaulin hiding the gun. This was the suspense
which tried the nerves of most Q-ship crews, especially
when it was followed by shelling.

We have seen that the U-boat sought to disguise
herself by putting up a sail when in the vicinity of
fishing craft or patrol vessels. The submarine which
torpedoed one ship disguised her periscope by a soap
box, so that it was not realized till too late that this
innocent-looking box was floating against the tide.
At the best the submarine was an unhandy craft,
and it took her from three to six minutes to make a
big alteration of course, inasmuch as she had to dive
deeper lest she should break surface or disturb the
surface of the water. Again, when running sub-
merged, if she wished to turn 16 points — e.g., from
north to south— the pressure on her hull made it
very difficult.

It may definitely be stated that those who went
to their doom in U-boats had no pleasant death.
When the Q-ship caused the enemy to be holed so
that he could not rise and the water poured in, this
water, as it moved forward in the submarine, was all
the time compressing the air, and those of the crew
who had not already committed suicide suffered
agonies. Moreover, even if a little of the sea got
into the bilges where the batteries were placed there

SUBMARINES AND Q-SHIP TACTICS 97

was trouble also. Sea-water in contact with the
sulphuric acid generated chlorine, a very deadly gas,
which asphyxiated the crew. There is at least one
case on record of a U-boat surrendering to a patrol
boat in consequence of his crew having become
incapacitated by this gas ; and on pulling up the
floorboards of a British submarine, one has noticed
the chlorine smell very distinctly. The dropping by
the decoy ship of depth charges sometimes totally
destroyed the submarine, but even if this was not
accomplished straight away, it had frequently a most
salutary effect : for, at the least, it would start some
of the U-boat's rivets, smash all the electric bulbs in
the ship, and put her in total darkness. The nasty
jar which this and the explosion gave to the sub-
marine's crew had a great moral effect. A month's
cruise in a submarine in wintry Atlantic weather,
hunted and chased most of the way from Heligoland
to the Fastnet and back, is calculated to try any
human nerves : but to be depth-charged periodically,
or surprised and shelled by an innocent-looking tramp
or schooner, does not improve the enthusiasm of the
men. Frequently it happened that the decoy ship's
depth charges merely put the hydroplanes out of gear
so that they jammed badly. The U-boat would then
make a crash-dive towards the bottom. At 100 feet
matters became serious, at 200 feet they became
desperate ; and presently, owing to pressure, the hull
would start buckling and leaking. Then, by sheer
physical strength, the hydroplanes had to be coaxed
hard over, and then up would come the U-boat to
the surface, revealing herself, and an easy prey for
the Q-ship's guns, who would finish her off in a few
fierce minutes. Life in a U-boat was no picnic, but
death was the worst form of torture, and such as could

7

98 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

be conveyed to the imagination only by means of a
Theatre Guignol play.

It was the obvious duty of the Q-ships to make
the life of a U-boat as nearly as possible unbearable,
and thus save the lives of our ships and men of the
Mercantile Marine. It was no easy task, and even
with perfect organization, well-thought-out tactics,
and well-trained crews, it would happen that some-
thing would rob the decoy of her victory. On
October 20, 1916, for instance, the Q-ship Salvia,
one of the sloop-class partially reconstructed w4th a
false counter-stern to resemble a 1,000-ton tramp,
was off the west coast of Ireland when a submarine
appeared astern, immediately opened fire, and began
to chase. Salvia stopped her engines to allow the
enemy to close more rapidly, but the U-boat, ob-
serving this, hauled out on to the Salvia's starboard
quarter, and kept up her firing without shortening
the range of 2,000 yards. Salvia next endeavoured
to close the range by going slow ahead and altering
slightly towards the enemy, but the latter's fire was
now becoming so accurate that Salvia was soon hit
on the starboard side by a 4*1 -inch high-explosive
shell. This burst through in nine places in the
engine-room bulkhead, smashing an auxiliary steam-
pipe and causing a large escape of steam. The
engines were now put full ahead, and course was
made for the enemy, who sheered away and shortly
afterwards dived.

That being so. Salvia deemed it prudent to pretend
to run away, but in the middle of the evolution her
steering gear unfortunately broke down, and before
control was established again with hand-steering gear,
the ship had swung 90 degrees past her course, and
the submarine reappeared on the port beam about

SUBMARINES AND Q-SHIP TACTICS 99

1,500 yards away, but presently disappeared. The
breakdown had been most unfortunate, for otherwise
a short, sharp action at about 700 yards would have
been possible, followed by an excellent chance of
dropping a depth charge very close to the enemy.
In that misty weather, with a rough sea and a fairly

m^MSubmerg.

s/m reappeareJ^^

s/Mdisafpearsd ^

y« reappeared

Fig. 7. — Diagram to Illustrate Approximate Movements of
' Salvia ' in her Action with Submarine on October 20, 1916.

strong breeze, it had been difficult to see any part of
the U-boat's hull, for she had trimmed herself so as to
have little buoyancy, and only her conning- tower could
be discerned. Below, in the Q-ship, the engine-room
staff found themselves up against difficulties ; for it
was an awkward job repairing the leaking steam-pipe,

100 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

as the cylinder tops and the engine-room were full of
live steam and lyddite fumes. The chief artificer and
a leading stoker were overcome by the fumes, but
the job was tackled so that steam could be kept up
in the boilers.

A few months later Salvia (alias Q 15) ended her
career. Just before seven o'clock on the morning of
June 20,1917, when in Lat. 52.15 N., Long. 16.10 W.—
that is to say, well out in the Atlantic — she was struck
on the starboard side abreast the break of the poop
by a submarine's torpedo. Troubles did not come
singly, for this caused the depth charge aft to explode
by concussion, completely wrecking the poop, blowing
the 4-inch gun overboard, and putting the engines
totally out of action. Here was a nice predicament
miles from the Irish coast. At 7.15 a.m., as the after
part of the ship was breaking up, her captain sent
away in the boats all the ship's company except the
crews of the remaining guns and others required in
case the ship should be saved. The submarine now
began to shell Salvia heavily from long range, taking
care to keep directly astern. The shells fell close to
the boats, so these were rowed farther to the eastward.
A shell then struck the wheelhouse and started a fire,
which spread rapidly to the upper bridge. It was
now time for the remainder of the crew to leave in
Carley rafts, and temporarily the submarine ceased
fire ; but when one boat started to go back to the
ship the enemy at once reopened his attack. He
then closed the rafts and took prisoner Salvia's captain,
who arrived safely in Germany, and was released
at the end of the war. At 9.15 a.m. the ship sank,
and ten minutes later the submarine disappeared.
Thus Salvia's people were suddenly bereft of ship
and skipper, with the broad Atlantic to row about

SUBMARINES AND Q-SHIP TACTICS 101

in, boisterous weather, and a heavy sea. The boat
which had endeavoured to return to the ship then
proceeded to search for the men in the Carley rafts,
but could see nothing of them. After about an hour
this boat sighted what looked like a tramp steamer,
so hoisted sail and ran down to meet her. At 1 1.20 a.m.
this steamer picked them up : she happened to be
another disguised sloop, the Q-ship Aubrietia, com-
manded by Admiral Marx, a gallant admiral who
had come back to sea from his retirement, and as
Captain, R.N.R., was now taking a hand in the great
adventure. Search was then made, and within two
hours the men in the rafts were picked up, and a
little later the other three boat-loads were located :
but five men had been killed, three by the first
explosion in Salvia and two by shell-fire. It had
been a sad, difficult day.

In the Mediterranean the enemy was showing an
increased caution against likely decoys, and by the
beginning of December, 1916, had already sunk a
couple of Q-ships. The Q-ship Saros ( Lieut. -
Commander R. C. C. Smart) was operating in this
sea, and had an engagement on October 30, thirteen
miles from Cape San Sebastian. The engine-room
was ordered to make smoke, as though the stokers
were endeavouring to get the utmost speed out of the
ship : at the same time the engines were rung
down to ' slow.' But the enemy realized the ruse and
slowed down, too. Lieut. -Commander Smart en-
deavoured to make the enemy think a panic had
seized the ship. So the firemen off* watch were sent
below to put on lifebelts and then to man the boats.
Stewards ran about, placing stores and blankets in
the boats, but the enemy insisted on shelling, so
Saros had to do the same, whereupon the submarine's

102 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

guns' crews made a bolt for the inside of the U-boat,
and then made off. As soon as she had got out of
sight, Sm'os changed her disguise, taking the two white
bands off the funnel, hoisting Spanish colours, and
altering course for the Spanish coast.

Three days later iSa70s was returning to the Gib-
raltar-Malta shipping track, heading for the Cani
Rocks, after carrying out firing exercises. At half-
past four in the afternoon, the officer of the watch
heard a shot, and saw a submarine 7,000 yards off
on the starboard beam. She was not trimmed for
diving, and was apparently trimmed to cruise like
this during the night on the surface. She seemed
quite careless and slow about her movements, evidently
never suspecting Saras' true character. Saros altered
course towards the enemy, who was firing all the time,
one round exploding and falling on board and several
coming close over the bridge. The U-boat, after going
on an opposite course, very slowly turned to starboard
to get on a parallel course, and men were seen hoisting
up ammunition on deck. The light was bad, and it
was becoming late, but Scwos had manoeuvred to get
the German in a suitable position as regards the sun,
so at 5,500 yards range opened fire with her 4-inch
and 12-pounder at 4.44 p.m. This shocked the
Teuton, so that the crew which had been sitting
around smoking, and apparently criticizing the old
' merchantman,' suddenly became active, lowered the
wireless masts and disappeared below. By the tenth
round, the enemy, who appeared to have been hit,
dived, and at 4.50 p.m. Saros ceased fire. Course
was then altered to where she had last been seen, and,
just before turning, the enemy for a moment showed
himself, but as the gun -layer was ready the German
disappeared, and then artfully cruised about sub-

SUBMARINES AND Q-SHIP TACTICS 103

merged, so as to get in a good position. She was never
seen again, but at 5.15 p.m. a torpedo passed just
ahead of the Scwos, and thereafter the latter zigzagged
at her utmost speed. During the night there was a

w

s/m first seen
firing

Z^" Course S.

->N

• 'Cease fire 4- SO
range on guns 6300i)as.

■^

^^^>j:sdd,

'yds.

\\ Torpedo passed
f dose dhcsdoF ship

Opened fire 4 44.

S/M First seen
sbout 7000

Courses.

Fig. 8. — Diagram to Illustrate Approximate Movements of 'Saros
IN HER Action with Submarine on November 3, 1916.

moon until midnight, and an anxious time was spent.
Owing to tlie amount of sea, Saros was not doing
more than 8 J knots, but no further attack took place.
It had been one able captain against another, and no
actual result had been made. So the warfare went

104 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

on in the Mediterranean. Baralong, now called
Wyaiidra, who had been sent to the Mediterranean,
had an engagement earlier in the year with a sub-
marine, on the evening of April 13, 1916, and probably
hit the enemy.

In the spring of 1917 three more Q- ships, Nos. 24, 25,
and 26, had been taken up to be fitted out and serve
under Vice- Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, at Queenstown.
These were respectively the Laggcin (alias Pladda),
Paxton (alias Lady Patricia), and the Mavis (alias
Nyi^oca), being small steamers of 1,200 or 1,300 tons,
each armed with one 4-inch and two 12-pounders. Q 18
(alias Lady Olive) had begun her work in January.
Now, of these four ships two had very short lives. On
May 20 Q 25 was sunk in the Atlantic, her com-
manding officer and engineer officer being taken
prisoners by the submarine. Twenty-two survivors
were picked up by a trawler, and four were picked up
by an American steamer and taken to Manchester.
Three officers and eight men were found by the
United States destroyer Wadswoi^th, who had arrived
only a few days before from America.

The fate of Q 18 was as follows : At 6.35, on the
morning of February 19, 1917, she was at the western
end of the English Channel, when she was attacked
by a submarine who was coming up from 3 miles
astern shelling her. After the usual panic party had
been sent away and the others had concealed them-
selves, the submarine came close under the stern,
evidently so as to read the ship's name. At 7.10
Lady Olive opened fire, the first two shots hitting the
base of the conning-tower, the other shot putting the
enemy's gun out of action and killing the man at
the gun, the range being only 100 yards. Six more
effectual shots were fired, the man in the conning-

SUBMARINES AND Q-SHIP TACTICS 105

tower being also killed. The submarine then sub-
merged. Lieutenant F. A. Frank, R.N.R., the
captain of the Q-ship, now rang down for full speed
ahead, with the intention of dropping depth charges.
No answer was made to his telegraph, so he waited
and rang again. Still no answer. He then left the
bridge, went below to the engine-room, and found
it full of steam, with the sea rising rapidly.
Engine-room, stokehold, and the after 'tw^een deck
were filling up, the dynamo was out of action, it was
impossible to use the wireless, and the steam-pipe had
burst owing to the enemy having landed two shots
into the engine-room.

As the ship was sinking, the only thing to do was
to leave her. Boats and rafts were provisioned, the
steel chest, containing confidential documents, was
thrown overboard, the ship was this time really aban-
doned in earnest, and all took to the three boats and
two rafts at 9.30 a.m. Thus they proceeded in single
line. Fortunately the weather was fine, and Lieu-
tenant Frank decided to make for the French coast,
w^hich was to the southward, and an hour later he
despatched an officer and half a dozen hands in the
small boat to seek for assistance. So the day went
on, but only the slowest progress w^as made. At
5 p.m. Lieutenant Frank decided to leave the rafts
and take the men into the boats, as some were begin-
ning to faint through immersion in the cold February
sea, and it was impossible to make headway towing
those ungainly floats with the strong tide setting them
at this time towards the Atlantic. The accommoda-
tion in each boat was for seventeen, but twenty-three
had been crowded into each.

With Lieutenant Frank's boat leading, the two
little craft pulled towards the southward, and about

106 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

9 p.m. a light was sighted, but soon lost through the
mist and rain. An hour later another light showed
up, and about this time Lieutenant Frank lost sight
of his other boat, but at eleven o'clock a bright light
was seen, evidently on the mainland, and this was
steered for. Mist and rain again obscured everything,
but by rowing through the night it was hoped to sight
it by daylight. Night, however, was followed by a
hopeless dawn, for no land was visible. It was heart-
breaking after all these long hours. The men had
now become very tired and sleepy, and were feeling
downhearted, as well they might, with the cold, wet,
and fatigue, and, to make matters no better, the wind
freshened from the south-west, and a nasty, curling
sea had got up. Lieutenant Frank put the boat's
head on to the sea, did all he could to cheer his men
up, and insisted that he could see the land. Everyone
did a, turn at pulling, and the sub-lieutenant, the
sergeant-major of marines, the coxswain, and Lieu-
tenant Frank each steered by turns. Happily by
noon of the twentieth the wind eased up, the sea
moderated, and Lieutenant Frank had a straight talk
to his men, telling them their only chance was to
make the land, and to put their hearts into getting
there, for land in sight there was. Exhorting these
worn-out mariners to put their weight on to the oars,
he reminded them that everyone would do ' spell
about,' for the land must be made that night.

Every man of this forlorn boat-load buckled to and
did his best, but, owing to the crowded condition, and
the weakness of them all, progress was pathetically
slow. Thus passed another morning and another after-
noon. But at 5.15 p.m. a steamer was sighted. Alas !
she ignored them and turned away to the westward,
and apparently was not coming near them. Then

SUBMARINES AND Q-SHIP TACTICS 107

presently she was seen to alter course to the east, and
began to circle towards them. This was the French
destroyer, Dunois, who had seen a submarine actually
following this English rowing boat. The destroyer,
which had to be handled smartly, came alongside the
boat, and shouted to the men to come aboard quickly,
as she feared she might lose the submarine. Here was
rest at last ; but, just as the boat had got alongside,
Dunois again caught sight of the Hun, had to leave
the boat and begin circling round and firing on the
pest. At six o'clock the destroyer once more closed
the boat, and got sixteen of the men out, when she
suddenly saw the U-boat, fired on her, and went full
speed ahead, the port propeller guard crashing against
the boat, so that it ripped out the latter 's starboard side.

There were still seven men in the boat, and it
seemed as if they were destined never to be rescued
after their long vigil, and moreover the boat was now
nearly full of water. Dtmois came down again ; some
of the Q-ship's seven jumped into the water, the
destroyer lowering her cutter and picking up the rest.
The submarine was not seen again ; the destroyer
arrived safely in Cherbourg, where the Englishmen
were landed, and next morning they met a trawler
with the crew of the second cutter on board.

Such, then, were action and counter- action of Q-
ship and submarine ; such were the hardships and
suffering which our men were called upon to endure
when by bad luck, error of judgment, or superior
cleverness of the enemy, the combat ended unfavour-
ably for the mystery ship. Not all our contests were
indecisive or victorious, and some of these subsequent
passages in open boats are most harrowing tales of
the sea. Men became hysterical, went mad, died, and
had to be consigned to the depths, after suffering the

108 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

terrors of thirst, hunger, fatigue, and prolonged
suspense. It was a favourite ruse for the U-boat,
having seen the survivors row off, to remain in the
vicinity until the rescuing ship should come along, so
that, whilst the latter was stopped and getting the
wretched victims on board, Fritz could, from the other
side, send her to the bottom with an easily-aimed
torpedo. There can be no doubt that, but for the
smartness of Duiiois' captain, she, too, would have
suffered the fate of the Q-ship, and then neither
British nor French would have survived. It is such
incidents as these which make it impossible to forget
our late enemies, even if some day we forgive.

CHAPTER IX

THE SPLENDID ' PENSHURST '

On November 9, 1915, the Admiralty, who had taken
up the steamer Penshurst (1,191 gross tons), com-
missioned her at Longhope as a Q-ship, her ahases
being Q 7 and Manjord. This inconspicuous-looking
vessel thus began a life far more adventurous than
ever her designers or builders had contemplated.
Indeed, if we were to select the three Q-ships which
had the longest and most exciting career, we should
bracket Penshurst with Farnhorough and Baralong.

The following incidents illustrate that no particular
rule could be laid down as to when a Q-ship could
get in touch with the enemy. We have seen that
Baralong set forth for a particular locality to look
for a definite submarine and found her. Other decoys
searched for submarines but never so much as sighted
one ; others, again, when everything seemed quiet,
suddenly found themselves torpedoed and sinking.
Others, too, had an engagement to-day, but their
next fight did not come until a year later. The case
of Penshurst is interesting in that on two consecutive
days she fought a submarine, but she is further
interesting as having been commanded by an officer
who, with Captain Gordon Campbell, will always
remain the greatest of all Q-ship captains.

Commander F. H. Grenfell, R.N., was a retired
officer who, like so many others, had come back

109

no Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

to the service after the outbreak of war. After
serving for a year in the 10th Cruiser Squadron as
second-in-command of Cedric, he was appointed to
command Penshurst, cruised up and down first off
the north of Scotland, then off Ireland, and in the
English Channel for nearly a year without any luck.
On November 29, 1916, a year after her advent

8.20 am f ^

Fig, 9. — Diagram to Illustrate Approximate Movements of 'Pens-
hurst' IN her Engagement with Submarine on November 29, 1916.

into this special service, Penshurst, who, with her
three masts, low freeboard, and funnel aft, resembled
an oil-tanker, was steaming down the English Channel
at 8 knots. The time was 7.45 a.m., and her course
was S. 81 W. (Mag.), her position at this time being
Lat. 49.45 N., Long. 4.40 W. She was definitely on
the look-out for a certain submarine which had
been reported at 4.30 the previous afternoon in Lat.
50.03 N., Long. 3.38 W. As Penshiirst went jogging

THE SPLENDID ' PENSHURST ' 111

along, picture a smooth sea, a light south-west wind,
and the sun just rising. Fine on the port bow 7 miles
away was the British merchant steamer JVileyside,
armed, as many ships were at this time, defensively
with one gun aft ; while hull down on PensJiw^^f s
starboard bow was a sailing ship of sorts. Then,
of a sudden, a small object was sighted on the port
beam against the glare of the horizon, so that it was
difficult to make out either its nature or its distance.
However, at 7.52 a.m. this was settled by the object
firing a shot and disclosing herself as a submarine.
The shot fell 60 yards short, but a few minutes later
came another which passed over the mainmast with-
out hitting. The range was about five miles, but
owing to the bad light Captain Grenfell could not see
whether the enemy was closing. In order to induce
her so to do, at 8 a.m. he altered course to N. 4.5 W.
This brought the enemy nearly astern, and at
the same time Penshurst slowed down to half
speed. By this time the sun was above the horizon,
and the light was worse than before, but the sub-
marine was apparently altering course to cut off the
JVileyside, and ignoring Penshurst. Therefore, at
8.6 a.m. the latter altered course so as again to
bring the submarine abeam. This had the desired
effect, for at 8.10 a.m. the submarine fired a third
shot, which fell about 200 yards short of Penshurst,
and this proved that Q-ship and submarine were
closing. Two minutes later Penshurst stopped her
engines and the usual ' panic ' evolution was carried
out, by which time the submarine had closed to
within 3,000 yards, and turned on a course parallel
with the Q-ship, reducing to slow speed and being
just abaft the Penshursfs port beam and silhouetted
against the glare of the sun, three Germans being

112 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

seen standing in the conning-tower. In order to
spin out the time, the Q-ship's boats were being
turned out and lowered as clumsily as possible, and
now the U-boat sent along a couple more shots, one
of which fell over and the other short.

Thus far it had been a contest of brain, and
Captain Grenfell had succeeded in making the enemy-
conform to the British will. At 8.20 a.m., as there
seemed no possibility of inducing the submarine
to come any closer, Pensfmrst opened fire, but there
was time to fire only a couple of rounds from the
12-pounder and 6-pounder and three rounds from
the 3-pounder before the German hurriedly dived, for
all three guns had dropped their shots pretty close to
the target. The shooting had been done under diffi-
cult circumstances, for it was at a black spot against
a strong glare. When once the enemy submerged,
Penshurst went full speed to the spot and dropped a
depth charge, but the German had escaped, and
she would live to warn her sister submarines about
the Q-ship which had surprised her.

For this U-boat had had a careful look at Penshurst^
and Captain Grenfell could hardly hope to surprise
the submarine again and bring her to action, so he
altered course to the eastward with the object of
intercepting another U-boat, whose presence had been
reported at 11.15 that forenoon 5 miles north of
Alderney. V^ery likely the submarine with whom he
had just been engaged would send out by her
telefiinken wireless a full description of the Q-ship,
so, as she steamed along, Penshurst now altered her
appearance by painting herself a different colour and
by lowering the mizzen-mast during the night. Thus,
when the sun rose on November 30, on what was to
be Penshui'sfs lucky day, she seemed to be a totally
different ship.

THE SPLENDID 'PENSHURST' 113

During the forenoon of November 30 we should
have seen this transformed Penshurst going down
Channel again well south of the Dorset chalk cliffs.
At noon she was in the position Lat. 50.11 N.,
Long. 2.31 W. (see track chart), steering N. 89 W.,

i I. so p.m..

OPosiHon c fS/ Mat3. I7pm

.15p.m.

'>'h.l2p.m.

C^squetsd y^
Alaerney

3?W

C Barf leu r

Fig. 10. — Diagram to Illustrate Approximate Movements of 'Pens-
hurst ' IN HER Action with Submarine on November .30, 1916.

when she intercepted a wireless signal from the
Weymouth-Guernsey S.S. Ibex that a submarine
had been seen at 11.44 a.m. 20 miles N.W. of the
Casquets ; so the Q-ship altered course towards
this position, and at 1.50 p.m. the conning- tower

8

114 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

of a submarine was observed 5 miles to the south-
ward, apparently chasing a steamer to the westward.
A few minutes later the German turned eastward
and then submerged. It was then that Penshurst
saw a seaplane, which had come across the Channel
from the Portland base, fly over the submarine's
position and drop a bomb Mdthout effect. This
caused Captain Grenfell to reconstruct his plans, for
it was hopeless now to expect that the submarine
would engage on the surface. On the other hand,
the Q-ship with her speed would be superior to this
type of submarine, which, when submerged, could not
do better than 6 knots at her maximum, but would
probably be doing less than this. The weapon should,
therefore, be the depth charge, and not the gun. He
decided to co-operate with the seaplane, and ran
down towards her.

It was necessary first to get in touch with the air-
man and explain who the ship was, so at 2.22 p.m.,
being now in Lat. 50 N., Long. 2.48 W., Captain Gren-
fell stopped his engines, and after some attempts at
communication by signal, the seaplane alighted on
the water alongside. Captain Grenfell was thus able
to arrange with the pilot to direct the Q-ship and fire
a signal-hght when the ship should be over the
submarine ; a depth charge could then be let go.
But the best-laid schemes of seamen and airmen
sometimes went wrong : for, just after the seaplane
had risen into the air, she crashed on to the water,
broke a wing, knocked off her floats and began to
sink. This was annoying at a time when the Q-ship
wanted to be thinking of nothing except the enemy ;
but Penshurst lowered her gig and rescued the air-
men, then went alongside the injured seaplane,
grappled it, and was preparing to hoist it on board

THE SPLENDID ' PENSHURST ' 115

when at 3. 14 p.m. a shell dropped into the sea 200
yards ahead of the ship. Other shots quickly followed,
and then the submarine was sighted about 6,000 yards
on the port quarter. How the enemy must have
laughed as, through his periscope, he saw the aircraft
which so recently had been the aggressor, now a
wreck ! How certain a victim the innocent-looking
steamer seemed to him !

Captain Grenfell, by change of circumstances, had
once more to modify his plans, stop all salvage work,
cast off the seaplane and swing in his derrick, which
was to have hoisted the latter in. The men in the
gig could not be left, and he was faced with two
alternatives. Either he could hoist the gig on the
port quarter in full view of the enemy, or he could
tow her alongside to starboard, and risk her being
seen. He chose the latter, and at 3.24 p.m. proceeded
on a south-westerly course at slow speed. The sub-
marine now came up right astern, so course had to be
altered gradually to keep the German on the port
quarter and out of sight of the gig.

Slowly the submarine overhauled the Q-ship, firing
at intervals, and at 4.12 p.m., when she was within
1,000 yards, Penshirst stopped her engines, the panic
party ' abandoned ' ship, and the two boat-loads pulled
away to starboard. The German now sheered out to
port, swept round on Pemhursfs port beam, and
passed close under the stern of her with the object of
securing the ship's papers from the captain, whom the
enemy supposed to be in the boats. A party of Ger-
mans would then have boarded the ship and sunk her
with bombs. But these intentions w^ere suddenly
frustrated at 4.26 p.m., when, the submarine being on
Penshursfs starboard quarter and all the latter's guns
bearing, the British ship opened fire at the delight-

116 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

fully convenient range of only 250 yards. This was
the last thing the enemy was expecting. No one was
standing by her 8"8-centimetre gun forward of the
conning-tower, the attention of all the Germans on
deck being directed towards the Q-ship's boats rowing
about. Thus completely and utterly surprised, the
Germans never made any attempt to return the fire.
The second shot, fired from Penshursfs starboard
3-pounder, penetrated right through into the engine-
room and prevented the submarine from submerging.
At this ridiculous range the British guns were able to
be worked at their maximum rapidity, so that over
eighty rounds were fired and almost every shot took
effect. Very soon the submarine's hull was fairly
riddled with holes, and large parts of the conning-
tower and hull plating were blown away by the shells
from the 12-pounder.

After only ten minutes' engagement the submarine
foundered, bows first, but not before Penshursfs boats
had taken off the survivors and also those who had
leapt into the sea. These survivors included Ober-
Leutnant Erich Noodt, Leutnant Karl Bartel, In-
genieur-Aspirant Eigler, and thirteen of the crew ;
but seven had been killed. Thus perished UB 19,
who had left Zeebrugge on November 22, having
come via the Straits of Dover. She was about 118
feet long, painted grey, had the one gun, tAVO peri-
scopes, and had been built the year previous. She
was of the smaller class of submarines belonging to
the Flanders flotilla which operated for three weeks
on end in" the waters of the English Channel, carrying
only three torpedoes, one of which had already been
used to sink a Norwegian ship. It was learned from
her crew that her submerged speed was about 4 knots ;
so Captain Grenfell, but for the accident to the sea-

Q-SHTP " Penshuest''

This shows a dress rehearsal. The "panic party" are seen rowinj,' away in
one of the ship's boats, the White Ensign is lieing hoisted on the foremast and
the guns are about to open tire. In this picture she has her mizzen mast up.

Q-sHiP "Penshurst" at sea

Seen witli only two masts, the mizzen having been lowered. The crew's
washing is displayed as in a tramp steamer. The funnel has been pninted a
different colour. ]>ut behind the white wind screen on the lower bridge is a
(i-pounder gun — one each side — which can fire from ahead to astern. Inside
the boat on the main hatch just forward of the funnel is the (iummy boat in
which a I'J-pounder is concealed. Two H-ponnders are in the after deck-house.
Depth charges were released through ports in the counter.

To face p. IIG

THE SPLENDID ' PENSHURS T ' 117

plane, would have been able to get right over her and
destroy her by depth charge.

Thus, at length, after a year of hard work, dis-
appointment, and all kinds of weather, Commander
Grenfell, by liis doggedness and downright skill, had
scored his tirst success. The King rewarded him with
a D.S.O., another officer received the D.S.C., and
one of the crew the D.S.M. The ship's complement
consisted of Commander Grenfell, three temporary
(acting) R.N.R. lieutenants, and one assistant pay-
master, who was engaged during the action in taking
notes. The crew numbered fifty-six, which included
R.N.R. and R.N.V.R. ratings. The sum of £1,000
was awarded to the ship, and, after the war, Lord
Sterndale in the Prize Court awarded a further sum
as prize bounty.

The gallant Penshurst had not long to wait for her
next adventure. December passed, and on January
14, 1917, there was another and newer UB boat
ready for her. It was ten minutes to four in the
afternoon, and the Q-ship was in Lat. 50.9 N., Long.
1.46 W. — that is to say, between the Isle of Wight
and Alderney, when she saw a submarine heading
towards her. Five minutes later, the German, when
3,000 yards off, fired, but the shot fell short. The
Q-ship then stopped her engines, went to ' panic '
stations, and sent away her boats with the ' abandon
ship ' party. Penshurst then gradually fell off to
port, and lay with her head about W.N. W., bringing
the submarine on the starboard bow. Closing rapidly
on this bearing, the UB boat kept firing at intervals,
and when about 700 yards off turned as though to
cross Captain GrenfelFs bows. The latter withheld his
fire, thinking the enemy was going round to the boats
on the port quarter, and he would be able to get her

118 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

at close range. But the German stopped in this
position, exposing her broadside, and quickened her
rate of fire, hitting the steamer twice in succession.
It was this kind of experience which always tested
the discipline and training of the Q-ship, as a well-
trained boxer can receive punishment without losing
his temper, knowing his chance will come presently.
The first hit broke an awning ridge-pole on Pens-

Bill of f\}rHjnd

J SOpm
stopped

^Noon It/1/17

Barfleur

Fig. 11.— Diagram to Illustrate Approximate Movements of
' Penshurst ' in her Action with Submarine on January 14, 1917.

Jmrsfs bridge, the second shell struck the angle of the
lower bridge, severing the engine-room telegraph
connections and the pipe connecting the hydraulic
release gear, by means of which the depth charge aft
could be let go from the bridge. This shell also
killed the gun-layer and loading-number of the
6-pounder, wounding its breech-worker and the
signalman who was standing by to hoist the White
Ensign. So at 4.24 p.m. Fenshurst opened fire, her

THE SPLENDID 'PENSHUIIST' 119

first shot from the 12-pounder hitting the base of the
enemy's conning-tower and causing a large explosion,
as though the ammunition had been exploded.
Large parts of the conning-tower were seen to be
blown away, and a big volume of black smoke arose.
The second British shot from this gun hit the enemy
a little abaft the conning-tower and also visibly
damaged the hull. The starboard 3-pounder hit the
lower part of the conning-tower at least four times,
and then the enemy sank by the stern. PensJiurst
wanted to make sure, so steamed ahead and dropped
depth charges over her, then picked up her boats and
made for Portland, where she arrived at ten o'clock
that evening and sent her wounded to the Naval
Hospital. It had been another excellent day's work,
for UB 37, one of those modern craft fitted w4th net-
cutters forward for the purpose of cutting a way
through the Dover Straits barrage, had been definitely
destroyed without a single survivor, ^lore rewards
followed, and, later on, more prize bounty.

Penshurst resumed her cruising, and just about a
month later she was in the western approach to the
English Channel, the exact date being February 20,
and the position Lat. 49.21 N., Long. 6.16 W. At
12.36 p.m. a German submarine rose to the surface,
and a quarter of an hour later began firing at a range
of 3,000 yards. Penshurst then ' abandoned ' ship,
and at 1.4 p.m. opened fire and scored a hit with her
6-pounder. At 100 yards range the other guns came
into action, and the enemy was hit above the water-
line in the centre of the conning-tower and abaft this
superstructure. She then submerged and was depth-
charged ; yet this submarine, in spite of all this, was
not sunk. This again illustrated the statement
already made that a submarine could be severely

120 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

holed and yet be able to get back home. A still more
illuminating example is to be found in the following
incident.

Only two days had elapsed and Penshurst was
again busily engaged. It was at 11.34 a.m., Feb-
ruary 22, and the ship was off the south coast of
Ireland, the exact position being Lat. 51.56 N.,
Long. ^A^ W. Penshurst was steering S. 89 W.
when she saw a submarine steering west. The steam-
ship therefore steamed at her utmost speed, but
could not get up to her, for we may as well mention
that this was U 84, a very up-to-date submarine
which had a surface speed of 16 knots and could do
her 9 knots submerged for a whole hour. It is not
to be wondered, therefore, that she could run away
from this slow steamer and at 11.55 a.m. disappear.
At this time there was in sight 8 miles away H.^l.S.
Alyssum, one of Admiral Bayly's sloops based on
Queenstown, who was escorting the large four-masted
S.S. Canadian. As Penshurst proceeded, she sighted
at 12.18 p.m. a boat with men in it, these being from
the torpedoed sailing ship Tnvercauld, which had been
sunk 22 miles S.E. of Mine Head, Ireland, that same
day. A few minutes later and Penshurst observed
the keel of this ship floating bottom up. At 12.35
the periscopes of U 84 were seen to emerge 400 yards
on the port beam, and the track of a torpedo making
straight for the midships of Penshurst. By at once
starboarding the helm, disaster was avoided, but the
torpedo passed as close as 15 feet.

The Q-ship then altered course to E. J S. as though
running away, and reduced to half speed to allow the
enemy to come up. Boats were turned out, the panic
party stood by with lifebelts on, and just after one
o'clock, at 3,500 yards range, the U-boat opened fire.

Q-SHip " Penshurst "

In this dummy boat mounted on the main hatch is seen hidden the 12-pounder
gun. The sides of the boat were movable. The voice pipe from the bridge to
the two after guns was laslied to the derricli and thus liidden from the enemy.

Q-SHIP " PeNSHUPvST "

This shows how the concealed 12-pounder gun could be brought into action by
removing the boat's sides. The bow end of the boat has been moved to the far
side of the gun. where Captain Grenfell, attired in his '■ mystery" rig of a
^piaster mariner, is seen standing. As will be seen from the other photograph,
the sides of the boat when in position were a perfect fit. The coil of rope was
intended to hide the gun's pedestal from observation by the enemy.

To face p. 120

THE SPLENDID ' PENSHURS T P21

whereupon the Q-ship ' abandoned ' ship. Then the
enemy closed to 1,500 yards on the starboard bow,
but cautiously submerged, and then, closely and
leisurely, inspected the ship from the periscope.
Having done that, and apparently been quite satisfied
that this was no trap- ship, the submarine emerged on
the port quarter, GOO yards away and broadside on.
One German officer then came out of the conning-
tower and two other men looked out of the hatch.
The first then shouted for the captain to come along-
side with the ship's papers, but the British petty
officer in charge of the boat party, in order to gain
valuable time, ingeniously pretended not to under-
stand. The German then repeated his order, so the
petty officer replied he w^ould bring the boat round
by the stern, the intention, of course, secretly being
for the purpose of affording Penshurst a clear range.

The petty officer's crew had not rowed more than
three strokes when bang went Penshursfs guns, at
which the German officer leapt through the hatch of
his conning-tower, a shot hitting the after part of this
superstructure just as the officer disappeared. Two
more shells got home in the centre, another hit the
hull abaft the conning-tower and burst, one holing
the hull below the conning-tow^er's base. The sub-
marine dived, but after a few minutes her bows came
up out of the water at a steep angle. Fire was then
reopened at her, and one shot was seen to go through
her side, and then once more she submerged. Tw^o
depth charges were dropped near the spot and
exploded, and then again the bows of the enemy
broke surface at a steep angle, but 3,000 yards to the
westward. Next the after deck came to the surface,
and all the crew came out and lined the deck. Pens-
hurst resumed shelling, hit her again, but U 84 now

122 Q-SHirS AND THEIR STORY

returned the fire. She was a big submarine, 230 feet
long, armed with a 4*1 -inch and a 22-pounder, and
a dozen torpedoes which could be fired from six
tubes.

But now approached H.M.S. Alyssum from the
north and began to shell the enemy, so that the latter
made off to the southward. The speed of Penshurst
was 8 knots — that is to say, about half that of the
enemy. Nor could the sloop overtake the latter, who,
after being chased for three hours, disappeared at
5.12 p.m. These sloops had been built for mine-
sweeping work, and not as anti-submarine ships, and
it was only because of the shortage of destroyers —
thanks largely to the demands in this respect by the
Grand Fleet — that these single-screwed, compara-
tively slow vessels were engaged on escort and patrol
duties.

In this engagement between the Q-ship and sub-
marine everything had been done that could have
been brought about by a most experienced, skilful,
and determined British officer. His guns had kept
on hitting, and yet the enemy had escaped. Fortu-
nately we now know the story from the enemy's side,
as an account of this incident was published in the
German Press, and bears out all that has been said
above. The German version mentions that U 84
took the British ship for a tank steamer. This is not
in the least surprising, for the Penshurst was one of
those small ships with her engines aft just as you see
in an ' oil-tanker,' and such a craft was sure enough
bait for any submarine. The Germans say the
torpedo was fired at 765 yards range, and missed
because the British ship was going ' faster than we
supposed.' The Q-ship's disguise was perfect, for it
was not until she opened fire that she was suspected

THE SPLENDID 'PENSHURST' 123

of being a 'trap.' As to the latter's shelling, the
German account admits that the superstructure abaft
the conning- tower was at once penetrated, and that
hardly had the hatch been closed than ' there is a
sharp report in the conning-tower, a yellow flash, and
explosive gases fill the air. A shell has penetrated
the side of the conning-tower and exploded inside.'
The result was that one man was injured. She then
dived, and at G5-G feet they felt the two depth
charges, which made the boat tremble and put out
some of the electric lights. The forward hydroplane
jammed, and this was the reason she came to the
surface at such a steep angle. The gyro compass,
the main rudder, the trimming pump, and all the
control apparatus also broke down. But what about
the leaks made by the shells ? These were plugged,
the tricolour flag of the French sailing ship Bayonne,
which they had sunk on February 17 in the English
Channel, being also used for that purpose.

The German account goes on to say this submarine
was now compelled to proceed on the surface and
run away, and the numerous men then seen on her
deck were engaged in bringing up ammunition, ' all
the men who are not occupied below' being thus
employed. The submarine at first took Alyssum for
a destroyer, and certainly bow on she was not unlike
one. It needs little imagination to realize how
narrowly the enemy had escaped, and the moral
effect which was made on the German crew. \^^e
know now that a German petty officer was killed
and an officer wounded. It mattered little that the
conning-tower was holed, for, as has been already
pointed out, this is not an essential part of the sub-
marine's construction. By closing the hatch on deck
no water could get down into the hull from here ;

124 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

and the other holes being also plugged, U 84 could
thus get back home by keeping out to sea during
daylight hours, avoiding our patrols, and passing
headlands under cover of night.

A month later Penshurst again fought a sharp
action under Commander Grenfell at the eastern end
of the English Channel, the position being in Lat.
50.28 N., Long. 0.12 W. In this engagement she
did not sink the enemy, but was herself badly damaged
and so seriously holed that she had to be towed to
Portsmouth the following day. Here she underwent
a long refit, and then went forth to fight again and to
fight, as ever, splendidly. She had a new command-
ing officer. Lieutenant Cedric Naylor, R.N.R., who
had been second-in-command to Captain Grenfell, now
invalided ashore, and this lieutenant well maintained
the traditions of the Q-service, and added to the dis-
tinctions won by this wonderful ship. Oft in danger,
but always emerging from the tightest of corners,
leaving the enemy seriously wounded, the gallant
Penshurst carried on.

On July 2 she was steaming her 8 knots, as usual,
and was in the western approaches (Lat. 49.10 N.,
Long. 8.25 W.), when at 1.30 p.m. a submarine
was seen crossing the ship's bows 6,000 yards away.
She dived and waited for Penshurst to approach
in the manner of attack outlined in a previous
chapter as being the tactics of a submarine. Then,
after a while, the periscope was sighted 500 yards
away on the port beam, so Penshurst, knowing a
torpedo was imminent, waited, and, the torpedo
having been sent, altered course to avoid it, just
missing by a matter of 10 feet. The ship's company
then went to ' panic ' stations and the ship was
' abandoned.' At 3.35 p.m. the enemy came to the

The Gallant Captain and Officers of Q-ship " Penshurst "

From left to right : Paymaster-Lieut. W. R. Ashton. R.iSI.R. ; Lieut. S. P. R. White,
R.N.R. : Sub-Lieut. J. R. Stenhouse, R.N.R. (in command of the "Aurora " in Hir E.
Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition, 1914-15); Captain F. H. Grenfell, R.N.; Lieut. C.
Naylor, R.N.R. (First Lieut.); and Lieut. W. S. Harrison, R.N.R. (Navigating Oflicer).

Men of thk Q ship " Penshi-ust ''

The ship's gunlayers and carpenter. The man in the centre wearing service uniform

was the giinlayer of the bridge (I-poundcr who was killed in the action of January 14,

I'.llT. The others are wearing their Q-.ship "rig."

To face p. 124

THE SPLENDID 'PENSHURST' 125

surface 5,000 yards away on the starboard quarter,
at 3.39 p.m. opened fire and continued until 4.13 p.m.,
when PeJishurst herself started firing at 4,500 yards,
succeeding in hitting the enemy sixteen times, and
undoubtedly seriously damaging him. The submarine
managed to pass out of range and was not sunk.
Three destroyers now came on the scene and gave
chase, but the German got away. For this engage-
ment Lieutenant Naylor received the D.S.O.

In accordance with Penshursfs previous experience,
not many weeks elapsed before she was again in
combat. It was the following August 19, and she
was cruising again in the western approaches. That
morning a steamship had sighted a submarine, and
Penshurst, who was now in Lat. 47.45 N., Long.
8.35 W., was steering S. 50 W., doing 8 knots, when
she saw the enemy 6 miles ahead steering across the
bows, evidently making the ' approach ' in his tactics.
There was little north-west wind, a moderate westerly
swell, and the sky was clear, but there was a strong
glare from the sun. At 5.8 p.m. the enemy dived,
and Lieutenant Naylor estimated that she would
probably attack with torpedo about 5.45 p.m.
Exactly at 5.44 a torpedo was observed to break
water 1,000 yards from the ship, 3 points on the star-
board bow, just forward of the sun's rays. Penshurst
put her helm hard aport, and at 5.45 the torpedo
struck her — but fortunately it was only a glancing
blow immediately below the bridge. The smart
handling of the ship had thus saved her from being
struck further aft, where the consequences would
have been even more serious. As it was, the explosion
caused a high volume of water to rise in such quantities
that upper and lower bridges and after deck were
flooded, overwhelming the gun's crew concealed there,

126 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

and filling the starboard boat hanging in the davits
over 70 feet away from the point of impact. Further-
more, it caused the ship to take a heavy list to
starboard so that the sea poured in over the bulwarks,
and she afterwards rolled to port, the water then
pouring in on this side also.

Some of the crew were hurled with force against
the ceiling of the cabins, but perfect discipline still
continued, as might well be expected with such
a well-tried crew. She had been torpedoed in
No. 2 hold, the starboard side of the lower bridge
had been stripped, and unfortunately the 12-pounder
there kept screened was thus exposed. Unfortunately,
too, the sides of the dummy boat amidships, which
hid another 12-pounder, were thrown down by the
explosion, thus exposing this gun, flooding the
magazine, putting out of action all controls from
the bridge as well as the ship's compasses and so on.
What was to be done now ? Lieutenant Naylor
wisely decided not to ' abandon ' ship since the guns
had been disclosed ; the ship could not be manoeuvred
so as to hide this side, and the enemy would probably
make another attack. She was therefore kept under
way, the steering gear was connected up with the
main steering engines, the wireless repaired, and at
5.58 a general signal was sent out to H.M. ships
requesting assistance.

At five minutes past six the submarine showed
herself on the port quarter 6,000 yards away. This
made things better, for if the enemy had not already
observed the exposed guns she could still be kept
in ignorance, as the sides of the false boat had in the
meantime been replaced in position. Therefore the
3-pounder on the top of the gunhouse aft opened fire
at 5,000 yards. This was quite a normal happening.

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128 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

for many a small mercantile steamer was thus armed
defensivel}^ The enemy replied, and at 6.21, as the
latter showed no intention of decreasing the range,
Penshurst opened fire with all guns on the port side,
and appeared to hit, so that at 6.24 the enemy
submerged. Meanwhile the Penshurst was not under
control and steamed round in circles, but help was
approaching, for at 6.50 p.m. H.M.S. Leonidas wire-
lessed saying she would reach Penshurst at 7.30 p.m.
At 7.5 the submarine was 7 miles astern, waiting
stationary to see what would happen, but at 7.26
she dived on observing the approaching destroyer.
Nightfall came, and as the water was still gaining in
the Q-ship, all the men who could be spared were
transferred to the Leonidas. Penshurst then shaped
a course E.N.E. for Plymouth, and next day at
1.30 p.m. was taken in tow by a tug which had been
sent out with two armed trawlers from the Scillies
Naval Base. Thus, wounded yet not beaten, she
passed through Plymouth Sound, and on August 21
made fast to a Devonport jetty, happily having
suffered no casualties to any of her personnel. Lieu-
tenant Naylor received a bar to his D.S.O., the ship
had a thorough refit, and in place of a 12-pounder she
was now given a 4-inch gun, which would enable her
to fight the 4*l-inch U-boat gun on more equal
terms.

Then, still commanded by Lieutenant Naylor, she
went forth again. We can pass over the intervening
weeks and come to Christmas Eve, 1917. At a time
when most non-combatants ashore were about to take
part in the great festival, this most gallant ship,
heroine of so many fights, was in the direst straits.
At midday she was approaching the southern end of
the Irish Sea, shaping a course to intercept a sub-

THE SPLENDID 'PENSHURST' 129

marine operating off the Smalls, when ten minutes
later she sighted a U-boat two points on the port bow,
in Lat. 51.31 N., Long. 5.33 W., about 5 miles ahead,
steering at right angles to Penshurst and beginning
the 'approach' of her attacking tactics. Penshurst
was making her usual 8 knots, and at 12.12 p.m.
the enemy, as was expected, submerged. Although
the Q-ship zigzagged and tried to make the enemy-
break surface astern and attack by gunfire, the Ger-
man was too good at his own job, and at 1.31 p.m.
came the torpedo, fired from 300 yards away, half a
point forward of the port beam. Only the track of
the torpedo was seen, the ship's helm was put hard
aport, but the torpedo could not be avoided and
struck the ship between the boilers and engine-room.
Violent was the explosion, great was the damage, so
that the ship stopped dead and began to settle by the
stern. The sides of the dummy boat amidships had
fallen down, thus exposing the midships 4-inch gun,
and the after gunhouse had also collapsed, reveaUng
the guns here placed, though the l2-pounder guns on
the bridge remained intact and concealed, with the
guns' crews close up and out of siglit. The ship was
now ' abandoned,' and panic parties were sent away
in the one remaining boat and two rafts. The enemy,
still submerged, proceeded to circle the ship, inspect
her closely, approach the boat and rafts, and then at
2.40 p.m. rose to the surface on the port bow 250
yards off and began shelling Penshurst with her after
gun. The Q-ship was about to open fire, but, owing
to having settled down so much by the stern, the gun
there could not be sufficiently depressed to bear. It
was only when the ship rolled or pitched enough that
advantage was taken of such movement and the enemy
fired at. Six rounds were fired, the second hitting

9

130 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

the submarine on the starboard side of the deck for-
ward, the fourth hitting abaft the conning-tower.
The enemy dived, and at 3.47 p.m. reappeared on the
starboard beam 5 miles away. But now one of
H.M. P-boats, those low-lying, specially constructed
anti-submarine craft, rather like a torpedo-boat, arrived
on the scene, so that the submarine was frightened
away and not sighted again on that day, though she
was probably the one sunk by a P-boat on Christmas
Day.

As for Penshurst, help had come too late. The
crew were saved, but the ship herself sank at 8.5 p.m.
on December 24, 1917. Lieutenant Cedric Naylor,
who already possessed the decorations of D.S.O. and
bar and D.S.C., and had for his gallantry been trans-
ferred from R.N.R. to the Royal Navy, now received
a second bar to his D.S.O., and Lieutenant E.
Hutchison, R.N.R. , received a D.S.O. Thus after
two years of the most strenuous service, full of
honours, this Penslmrst ended her glorious life as a
man-of-war. Wounded, scar-stained, repaired and
refitted, her gallant crew, so splendidly trained by
Captain Grenfell, had kept taking her to sea along
the lanes of enemy activity. Insignificant to look at,
when you passed her on patrol you would never have
guessed the amount of romance and history contained
in her hull. Naval history has no use for hysteria and
for the sensational exaggeration of ' stunt ' journalism,
but it is difficult to write calmly of the great deeds
performed in these most unheroic-looking ships. To-
day some Q-ship officers and men are walking about
looking for jobs, and there are not ships in commis-
sion to employ them. But yesterday they were
breaking the spirit of the U-boat personnel, risking
their lives to the uttermost limits in the endeavour to

THE SPLENDID 'PENSHURST' 131

render ineffectual the submarine blockade and the
starvation of the nation.

Bravery such as we have seen in this and other
chapters was greater than even appears : for, having
once revealed the identity of your ship as a man-of-
war, the wounded submarine would remember you,
however much you might disguise yourself; and the
next time he returned, as he usually did, to the same
station, he would do his best to get you, even if he
spent hours and days over the effort. That officers
and men willingly, eagerly, went to sea in the same
Q-ships, time after time, when they might have
obtained, and would certainly have deserved, a less
trying appointment afloat or ashore, is surely a positive
proof that we rightly pride ourselves on our British
seamanhood. Through the centuries we have bred
and fostered and even discouraged this spirit. In
half- decked boats, in carracks, galleons, wooden walls,
fishing boats, lifeboats, pleasure craft ; in steam, and
steel-hulled motor, cargo ships, in liner and tramp and
small coaster, this seamanlike character has been
trained, developed, and kept alive, and now in the
Q-ship service it reaches its apotheosis. For all that
is courageous, enduring, and inspiring among the
stories of the sea in any period, can you beat it ? Can
you even equal it ?

CHAPTER X

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS

One of the great lessons of the Great War was the
inter-relation of international politics and warfare.
It was an old lesson indeed, but modern conditions
emphasized it once more. We have already seen that
the torpedoing in 1915 of the Atlantic liners Lusitania
and Arabic caused pressure to be put on the German
Government by the United States of America. In
the spring of 1916 the submarine campaign, for the
Germans, was proceeding very satisfactorily. In
February they had sunk 24,059 tons of British mer-
chant shipping, in March they sank 83,492 tons, in
April 126,540 tons ; but in May this dropped sud-
denly to 42,165 tons. What was the reason for this
sudden fall ?

The answer is as follows : On March 24, 1916, the
cross-Channel S.S. Sussex was torpedoed by a
German submarine, and it happened that many
citizens of the U.S.A. were on board at the time and
several were killed. This again raised the question
of relations between the U.S.A. and Germany, the
New York World going so far as to ask, ' Whether
anything is to be gained by maintaining any longer
the ghastly pretence of friendly diplomatic corre-
spondence with a Power notoriously lacking in truth
and honour.' On April 20, therefore, the U.S.A.
presented a very sharp note to the German Govern-

132

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 133

ment, protesting against the wrongfulness of the
submarine campaign waged versus commerce, and
threatened to break off diplomatic relations. The
result of this was that Germany had to give way,
and sent orders to her naval staff to the effect that
submarine warfare henceforth was to be carried on in
accordance with Prize Law : that is to say, the
U-boats — so Admiral Scheer interpreted it — were
' to rise to the surface and stop ships, examine papers,
and all passengers and crew to leave the ship before
sinking her.'

Now this did not appeal to the German mind at
all. ' As war waged according to Prize Law by
U-boats,' wrote Admiral Scheer,"---" ' in the waters
around England could not possibly have any success,
but, on the contrary, must expose the boats to the
greatest dangers, I recalled all the U-boats by wire-
less, and announced that the U-boat campaign
against British commerce had ceased.' Thus we find
that after April 26 the sinkings of British merchant
ships became low until they began to increase in
September, 191G, and then rapidly mounted up until
in April, 1917, they had reached their maximum for
the whole war with 516,394 tons. It is to be noted
that after May 8, until July 5, 1916, no sinkings by
U-boats occurred in home waters, although the
sinkings went on in the Mediterranean, where risk
of collision with American interests was less likely
to occur.

Having regard to the increasing utility and effici-
ency of the Q-ships, we can well understand Admiral
Scheer's objection to U-boats rising to the surface,
examining the ship's papers, and allowing everyone
to leave the ship before sinking her. This was the

* ' Germany's High Sea Fleet in the World War/ p. 242.

134 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

recognized law, and entirely within its rights the
Q-ship made full use of this until she hoisted the
White Ensign and became suddenly a warship. It
shows the curious mental temper of the German that
he would gamble only when he had the dice loaded in
his favour. He had his Q-ships, which, under other
names, endeavoured and indeed were able to pass
through our blockade, and go raiding round the
world ; but until his submarines could go at it ruth-
lessly, he had not the same keenness. It was on
February 1, 1917, that his Unrestricted Submarine
Campaign began, and this was a convenient date, seeing
that Germany had by this time 109 submarines. We
know these facts beyond dispute, for a year after the
signing of Armistice Germany held a ' General
National Assembly Committee of Inquiry ' into the
war, and long accounts were published in the Press.
One of the most interesting witnesses was Admiral
von Capelle, who, in March, 1916, had succeeded
von Tirpitz as ISIinister of JNIarine ; and from the
former's lips it was learned that one of the main
reasons why Germany in 1916 built so few sub-
marines was the Battle of Jutland ; for the damage
inflicted on the High Sea Fleet necessitated taking
workmen away from submarine construction to do
repairs on the big ships. The number and intensity
of the minefields laid by the British in German
waters in that year caused Germany to build many
minesweepers to keep clear the harbour exits. This
also, he says, took men away from submarine build-
ing. It needed a couple of years to build the larger
U-boats and a year to build the smaller ones ; and
though at the beginning of the Unrestricted Cam-
paign in February, 1917, there were on paper
109 German submarines, and before the end of the

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 135

war, in spite of sinkings by Allied forces, the number
even averaged 127, yet there were never more than
76 actually in service at one time, and frequently the
number was half this amount. For the Germans
divided the seas up into so many stations, and for
each station five submarines were required, thus :
one actually at work in the area, one just relieved
on her way home for rest and refit, a third on her
way out from refit to relieve number one, while two
others were being overhauled by dockyard hands.
Geographically Germany was unfortunately situated
for attacking the shipping reaching the British Isles
from the Atlantic and Bay of Biscay. Before the
submarines could get into the Atlantic they had
either to negotiate the Dover Straits or go round the
North of Scotland. The first was risky, especially
for the bigger and more valuable submarines, and
during 1918 became even highly dangerous ; but
the second, especially during the boisterous winter
months, knocked the submarines about to such
an extent that they kept the dockyards busier than
otherwise.

All this variation of U-boat activity reacted on the
rise, development, and wane of the Q-ship. In the
early part of 1917, when the submarine campaign was
at its height, the Q-ships were at the top of their
utility. It was no longer any hole-and-corner service,
relying on a few keen, ingenious brains at one or two
naval bases, but became a special department in the
Admiralty, who selected the ships, arranged for the
requisite disguises, and chose the personnel. The
menace to the country's food had by this time
become so serious — a matter of a very few weeks, as
we have since learned, separated us from starvation —
that every anti-submarine method had to be carried

136 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

out with vigour, and at that time no method promised
greater success than these mystery ships. Altogether
about 180 vessels of various sorts were taken up and
commissioned as Q-ships. Apart from the usual
tramp steamers and colliers and disguised trawlers,
thirty-four sloops and sixteen converted P-boats,
named now ' PQ's,' were equipped. The P-boat, as
mentioned on a previous page, was a low-lying craft
rather like a torpedo-boat ; but her great feature was
her underwater design. She was so handy and had a
special forefoot that if once she got near to a sub-
marine the latter would certainly be rammed ; in one
case the P-boat went clean through the submarine's
hull. The next stage, then, was to build a suitable
superstructure on this handy hull, so that the ship
had all the appearance of a small merchant ship.
Because of her shallow, deceptive draught she was
not likely to be torpedoed, whereas her extreme
mobility was very valuable.

In every port all over the country numerous
passenger and tramp steamers and sailing ships were
inspected and found unsuitable owing to their
peculiar structure or the impossibility of effective
disguise combined with a sufficient bearing of the
disguised guns. All this meant a great deal of
thought and inventive genius, the tonnage as a rule
ranging from 200 to 4,000, and the ships being
sent to work from Queenstown, Longhope, Peter-
head, Granton, Lowestoft, Portsmouth, Plymouth,
Falmouth, Milford, Malta, and Gibraltar. And
when you ask what was the net result of these
Q-ships, the whole answer cannot be given in mere
figures. Generally they greatly assisted the merchant-
man, for it made the U-boat captain very cautious,
and there are instances where he desisted from attack-

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 1.37

ing a real merchant ship for the reason that something
about her suggested a Q-ship. In over eighty cases
Q-ships damaged German submarines and thus sent
them home licking their wounds, anxious only to be
left alone for a while. This accounts for some of
those instances when a merchant ship, on seeing a
submarine proceeding on the surface, was surprised
to find that the German did not attack. Thus the
Q-ship had temporarily put a stop to sinkings by that
submarine. But apart from these indirect, yet no
less valuable, results, no fewer than eleven submarines
were directly sent to their doom of all the 203
German U-craft sunk during the war from various
causes, including mines and accidents.

But as time went on it became inevitable that the
more a Q-ship operated the more likely would she be
recognized and the less useful would be her work.
By August, 1917, Q-ships Avere having a most
difficult time, and during that month alone six
Q-ships were lost. By September their success,
broadly speaking, was on the wane. This, however,
does not mean that their service had ceased to be
productive or that they were no longer deemed worth
while. On the contrary, as we shall see presently,
they were to perform more wonderful work, and the
number of Q-ships was actually increased, especially
in respect of sailing ships in home waters ; but those
which happened to make an unsuccessful attack were
at once ordered to return to their base and alter both
rig and disguise. Similarly, in the Mediterranean,
where the submarines w^ere doing us so much harm,
the number of Q-ships was increased, and one was
cleverly included in the outward-bound convoys, to
drop astern as soon as in the danger zone, after the
manner of many a lame-duck merchantman whose

138 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

engines had caused him to straggle. Then would
come the Q-ship's chance, when she revealed herself
as a warship and fooled the submarine from attacking
the convoy, which had just disappeared over the
horizon in safety.

The converted 'flower' class sloops, originally
built as minesweepers, but by the able work of the
naval dockyard staff now made to resemble little
merchantmen, were having a busy time. Tulip
(Q 12), for instance, which had begun her Q-ship
service at the end of August, 1916, was sunk eight
months later by a submarine in the Atlantic and her
captain taken prisoner, though eighty survivors were
picked up by the British destroyer Mary Rose and
landed in Queenstown.* The sloop Viola began this
special work towards the end of September, 1916,
and a month later was shelled by a submarine, who
suddenly gave up the attack and made off" to the
northward, having evidently realized the sloop's dis-
guise, which none but an expert seafarer could have
penetrated. Now, in each submarine there was
usually carried as warrant navigating officer a man
who had served in German liners and freighters and
would be familiar with the shipping normally to be
found in the area to which each U-boat was assigned.
In this particular incident his practised eye had
evidently been struck by the position of the above-
water discharge being vertically under the imitation
cargo hatch and derrick forward of the mainmast.
These were important details which had to be
watched if the disguise was to be successful.

■^ Tulip was sunk by U 62, whose captain reported that she was
a very well-disguised trap, having the appearance of a medium-sized
cargo steamer. Suspicion was aroused by the way the merchant
flag was hoisted, and the fact that she appeared to have no defensive
gun.

, «

1 ^

'"m

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y<^^M

.^,,^^^^^^

1

m

. _s; — X: _^ ^^

MHi

■

■-' ' ' '

■^'

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-~ 1

Q-SHiP '• Tulip "'

This vessel was originally built as a sloop, but was given a false stern and
generally altered to resemble a merchantman.

(^-sHip '• Tamarisk''

Like the "Tulip," this vessel was originally built as a warship. She was
cleverly altered so that both in hull and upperworks she resembled a merchant

steamer.

To fucu p. 138

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 130

Another converted sloop was Tamarisix, who began
that role at the end of July, 1916, and was commanded
by Lieutenant John W. Williams, R.N.R. Towards
the end of November she was shelled by a submarine
at long range, so that the Q-ship had to declare her-
self and reply, whereupon the enemy beat a retreat
and dived. Hitherto the excellent Q-ship gunnery
had depended on the fact that first-class men had
been selected who would be able at short range to
score hits with the first or second rounds. But this
incident of the Tamarisk, involving at least 0,000
yards range, showed that a small range-finder would
be very useful, and this was accordingly supplied.
Other sloops thus converted to resemble merchant-
men were the Begonia, Aubrietia, Salvia, Heather,
and so on.

The Q-ships operated not merely in the North
Atlantic, English Channel, North Sea, and Mediter-
ranean, but in such areas as off Lapland and the other
side of the North and South Atlantic. For instance,
the S.S. Intaba (Q 2), under Commander Frank
Powell, on December 8, 1916, was in action with a
submarine not far from the Kola Inlet, and had been
sent to these northern latitudes inasmuch as German
submarines for some time had been sinking our
merchant ships off that coast. Another Q-ship
operated with a British E-class submarine near
Madeira and the Canaries ; and another Q-ship was
in the South Atlantic looking for a German raider,
At other times there were the ocean-going submarines
Deutschland and Bremen to be looked out for.
There was thus plenty of work to be carried out by
these decoy vessels in almost every sea.

But it was especially those Q-ships based on
Queenstown who had to bear the brunt of the sub-

140 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

marine warfare. Strategically, Queenstown was an
outpost of the British Isles, and there was scarcely a
day in the week when one Q-ship was not leaving or
entering Queenstown, or in the Haulbowline Dock-
yard being got ready for her next ' hush ' cruise.
Bearing in mind that this base was in a country
whose inhabitants were largely anti-British, that
there had been a great rising in Dublin at Eastertide,
1916, and that the German disguised S.S. Aud had
made an ineffectual attempt to land a cargo of arms,
and that Sir Roger Casement had arrived, it may
well be realized how great was the responsible task of
enshrouding these decoys in secrecy. Perhaps for
weeks a recently requisitioned ship would be along-
side the dockyard quay having her necessary disguises
made, and yet the enemy knew nothing about it
until he found himself surprised, and forced to keep
at long range or hide himself in the depths of the sea.
Sound organization, constant personal attention on
the part of the Commander-in-Chief, and loyal,
enthusiastic co-operation on the part of the officers
and men, achieved the successes which came to this
difficult work of Q-ships. It was all such a distinctly
novel kind of sea service, which was of too personal
and particular a kind to allow it to be run by mere
routine. During the whole of its history it was experi-
mental, and each cruise, each engagement, almost
each captain added to the general body of knowledge
which was being rapidly accumulated. It seemed
for the professional naval officer as if the whole
of his previous life and training had been capsized.
Instead of his smart, fast twin-screw destroyer, he
found himself in command of an awkward, single-
screw, disreputable-looking tramp, too slow almost to
get out of her own way. On the other hand, officers of

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 141

the Mercantile Marine, fresh from handhng freighters
or Hners, in whom throughout all their lives had been
instilled the maxim ' Safety first,' now found they had
to court risks, look for trouble, and pretend they
were not men-of-war. Q-ship work was, in fact,
typical of the great upheaval which had affected the
whole world.

In some cases the transition was gradual. Some
officers, having come from other ships to command
sloops, found their aspirations satisfied not even in
these ships, whose work went on unceasingly — escort-
ing all but the fastest Altantic liners, patrolling,
minesweeping, picking up survivors or salvaging
stricken ships, or whatever duty came along. Trans-
ferring as volunteers from sloops to sloops rebuilt as
Q-ships, they had to forget a great deal and acquire
much more. One of such officers was Lieut.-Com-
mander W. W. Hallwright, R.N., who, after doing
very fine work as captain of one of H.M. sloops
based on Queenstown, took over command of the
disguised sloop Heather (Q 16). One April day in
1917, while cruising in the Atlantic about breakfast
time, Heather was suddenly attacked by a submarine,
whose sixth shot killed this keen officer, a piece
of shell passing through his head whilst he was
watching the movements of the German through
a peep-hole on the starboard side of the bridge.
Lieutenant W. McLeod, R.N.R., then took com-
mand, opened fire, but the submarine dived and
made off as usual.

Other Q-ship captains perished, and that is all we
know. On a certain date the ship left harbour ; per-
haps a couple of days later she had reported a certain
incident in a certain position. After that, silence !
Neither the ship nor any officers or crew ever returned

142 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

to port, and one could but assume that the enemy
had sent them to the bottom. In spite of all this,
the number of volunteers exceeded the demand.
From retired admirals downwards they competed
with each other to get to sea in Q-ships. Bored
young officers from the Grand Fleet yearning for
something exciting ; ex-mercantile officers, yachts-
men, and trawler men, they used every possible
means to become acceptable, and great was their
disappointment if they were not chosen.

CHAPTER XI

THE GOOD SHIP ' PRIZE '

In the summer of 1914 I happened to be on a yacht-
ing cruise in the English Channel. In July we had
seen the Grand Fleet, led by Iron Ihike, clear out
from Weymouth Bay for Spithead. In single line
ahead the battle squadrons weighed and proceeded,
then came the light cruisers, and before the last of
these had washed the last ounce of dirt off her cable
and steamed into position, the Iron Duke and Marl-
borough were hull down over the horizon : it was the
most wonderful sight I had ever witnessed at sea.
A week or two later I had arrived in Falmouth, the
war had begun, and yachting came to a sudden stop.
One morning we found a new neighbour had arrived,
a typical, foreign-built, three-masted schooner, who
had just been brought in and anchored. She was
destined to be an historic ship in more ways than
one. Actually, she was the first prize to be captured
fi'om Germany, and it was a unique sight then to
see the White Ensign flying over German colours.
Within four or five hours of declaration of war this
craft had been captured at the western entrance ot
the English Channel, and she never became German
again.

But she was to be historic in quite another way.
Of all the splendid little Q-ships during the war, not
excepting even the Mitchell mentioned in another

143

144 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

chapter, no sailing craft attained such distinction,
and her captain will be remembered as long as British
naval history has any fascination. This German
schooner was named the Else, and had been built of
steel and iron in 1901 at Westerbrock, by the firm of
Smit and Zoon, but registered at Leer, Germany.
She was 112 feet 6 inches long, her net tonnage
being 199. I can still see her disconsolate German
skipper standing aft, and it must have grieved him
that his ship was about to be taken from him for
ever. For she was afterwards put up for auction
and sold to the Marine Navigation Company, who,
because of her experience already mentioned, changed
her name from Ebe to Fii^st Prize. In November,
1916, she was lying in Swansea, and as the Admiralty
was looking out for a suitable vessel to carry out
decoy work after the manner of Mitchell and Helgo-
land, she was surveyed, found suitable, and requisi-
tioned. A few weeks later the Managing Director
of the Company patriotically decided to waive all
payment for hire, and lent her to the Admiralty
without remuneration.

By February, 1917, this auxiliary topsail schooner
was ready for sea as a disguised man-of-war, with a
couple of 12-pounders cleverly concealed on her deck.
She had changed her name from First Prize to Prize,
alias Q 21, and in command of her went Lieutenant
W. E. Sanders, R.N.R., whom we saw behaving with
distinction when serving in the Q-sailing-ship Helgo-
land. No better man could have been found than this
plucky New Zealander, and he had already shown
that he had a genius for this extra special type of
Q-ship work. Prize had been sent to work in the
western waters, and on April 26, 1917, she left Milford
Haven for a cruise off the west coast of Ireland, this

THE GOOD SHIP * PRIZE ' 145

being the month when, of all months in the war,
German submarines were the most successful. At 8.35
on the evening of April 30, Prize was in Lat. 49.44 N.,
Long. 11.42 W. It was fine, clear, spring-like
weather, with a light N.N.E. wind, calm sea, and
good visibility. Prize was under all sail, steering on
a north-west course, and making about 2 knots. Two
miles away on her port beam, and steering a parallel
course, was sighted a big submarine. This was U 93,
a most modern craft, commanded by one of Germany's
ablest submarine officers, Lieut. -Commander Freiherr
von Spiegel. She was a powerful vessel, who had
relieved U 43 on this station, and was over 200 feet
long, armed with two 10'5-centimetre guns, 500 rounds
of ammunition, and 18 torpedoes, her complement
consisting of 37 officers and men. This latest sub-
marine was on her maiden trip in the Atlantic, having
left Emden on Friday, April 13. For those who are
superstitious the day and the date will be interesting.
She had had a most successful cruise, having sunk
eleven merchantmen, and was now on her way back
to Germany. Von Spiegel was anxious to be back
home as soon as possible, for, be it said, he was
certainly a sportsman, and he happened to have a
couple of horses running in the Berlin races in the
second week of May.

The sighting of this little topsail schooner made
him avaricious. He had sunk eleven : why not make
the number a round dozen? So, at 8.45 p.m., he
altered course towards the P?ize, and ordering on
deck to see the fun all his men who could be spared,
he opened fire with both guns. Lieutenant Sanders
therefore brought Prize into the wind, and sent his
panic party to row about. This party consisted of six
men in charge of Skipper Brewer, of the Trawler

10

146 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Reserve, who had been intentionally visible on deck,
and now launched their small boat. In the mean-
time, at the sounding of the alarm, Lieutenant Sanders
and Skipper Meade (also of the Trawler Reserve) had
concealed themselves inside the steel companion-cover
amidships, and the rest of the crew were hiduig under
the protection of the bulwarks or crawling to their
respective stations. Prize's two guns were placed
one forward, concealed by a collapsible deckhouse, and
one aft, on an ingenious disappearing mounting under
the hatchway covers of the after hold, and she carried
also a couple of Lewis guns. Lieutenant W. D.
Beaton, R.N.R., who was second in command of the
ship, was in charge of the gunnery forward, and lay
at the foot of the foremast with his ear to a voice-
pipe which led back to where Lieutenant Sanders
was conning the ship.

The contest could not fail to be interesting, for it
resolved itself into a duel between one ' star-turn '
artist and another. Neither was a novice, both were
resourceful, plucky men, and the incident is one of
the most picturesque engagements of all the Q-ship
warfare. Taking it for granted that this little trader
out in the Atlantic was what she appeared to be,
von Spiegel closed. Pi^izes head had now fallen off
to the eastward, so the submarine followed her round,
still punishing her with his shells, to make sure the
abandon-ship evolution had been genuine. Two of
these shells hit Prize on her waterline — you will
remember she was built of iron and steel — penetrating
and bursting inside the hull. One of them put the
auxiliary motor out of action and wounded the motor
mechanic : the other destroyed the wireless room and
wounded the operator. That was serious enough, but
cabins and mess-room were wrecked, the mainmast

THE GOOD SHIP 'PRIZE' 147

shot through in a couple of places, and the ship now
leaking. Such was the training, such was the dis-
cipline of these men under their gallant New Zealand
captain, that, in spite of this nerve-wracking experi-
ence, they still continued to remain on deck, immobile,
unseen, until Lieutenant Sanders should give the
longed-for word. They could see nothing, they could
not ease the mental strain by watching the enemy's
manoeuvres or inferring from what direction the next
shot — perhaps the last — would come. This know-
ledge was shared only by Lieutenant Sanders and
Skipper JNleade as they peeped through the slits of
their lair. Several times Sanders crept from this
place on hands and knees along the deck, encouraging
his men and impressing on them the necessity of
concealment.

Meanwliile, closer and closer drew the submarine,
but the latter elected to remain dead astern, and this
was unfortunate, for not one of Prizes guns would
thus bear. Then there was a strange sound aft.
Everyone knows that the inboard end of a patent
log fits into a small slide, which is screwed down on
to the tafFrail of a ship. Suddenly this slide was
wrenched and splintered, for the enemy had got so
close astern that she had fouled and carried away the
log-line in her endeavour to make quite sure of her
scrutiny. U 93 then, apparently convinced that all
was correct, sheered out a little and came up on the
schooner's port quarter only 70 yards away, being
about to send her quickly to the bottom.

Thus had passed twenty long, terrible minutes of
suspense on board the Q-ship, and it was five minutes
past nine. But patience, that great virtue of the
really brave, had at length been rewarded. Through
his steel slit Sanders could see that his guns would

148 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

bear, so ' Down screens !' ' Open fire !' and up went
the White Ensign. Covers and false deckhouses
were suddenly collapsed, and the Prizes guns now
returned the fire, as the pent-up feelings of the crew
were able to find their outlet in fierce activity. But
even as the White Ensign was being hoisted, the
submarine fired a couple more shots, and the schooner
was twice hit, wounding one of the crew who had
rushed below to fetch from the bottom of the ladder
a Lewis gun. Von Spiegel was now evidently very
angered, for putting his helm hard aport he went full
speed ahead to ram the schooner, and with that fine
bow he might have made a nasty hole at the water-
line, through which the sea would have poured like a
waterfall. But he realized that he was outside his
turning circle, so put his helm the other way and
tried to make off. It was then that a shell from the
Prize's after gun struck the forward gun of the sub-
marine, blowing it to pieces, as well as the gun's crew.
The second shot from the same British gun destroyed
the conning-tower, and a Lewis gun raked the rest
of the men on the deck. The third shot from Prize's
after gun also hit so that she stopped, and as she sank
shell after shell hit, and the glare was seen as of a fire
inside the hull. At 9.9 p.m., after the Prize had fired
thirty-six rounds, the enemy disappeared stern first.
Lieutenant Sanders could not use his engines as they
were already out of action, and there was practically
no wind, so he could not go to the spot where she
had last been seen.

The darkness was fast falling, and the panic party
in the boat rowed over the scene to search for any
survivors, and picked up three. These were Von
Spiegel, the submarine's captain, the navigating
warrant officer, and a stoker petty officer. Covered

THE GOOD SHIP ' PRIZE ' 149

by Skipper Brewer's pistol, these were now taken on
board the schooner. But Prize herself was in a bad
way. Water was pouring through the shell-holes,
and, in spite of efforts to stop it, the sea was gaining
all the time. Had it not been calm, the vessel would
certainly have gone to the bottom. Von Spiegel, on
coming aboard, offered his word of honour to make
no attempt to escape, and undertook that he and his
men would render all assistance. His parole being
accepted, captors and captives set to work to save
the ship. There was a possibility that another sub-
marine known to be in the area would come along
and finish off the sinking Prize, so all had more than
an interest in the proceedings.

As the ship was leaking so badly, the only thing
to do was to list her. This was done by swinging
out the small boat on the davits filled with water ;
by passing up from below both cables on deck and
ranging them on the starboard side ; by shifting coal
from port to starboard and by emptying the port
fresh-water tanks. By this means the shot-holes were
almost clear of the water, though the crew had to
continue baling night and day. Troubles never come
singly. Here was this gallant little ship lying out
in the Atlantic night, crippled and becalmed. An
attempt was made to start the engines, but owing to
sparks from the motor igniting the oil which had
escaped from a damaged tank, a fire broke out in the
engine-room. This was prevented from reaching the
living quarters and magazine, and was eventually put
out. Meanwhile, the German navigating warrant
officer had dressed the wounds of Prize's wounded
crew, and now, at 11.45 p.m., Prize's wounded stoker
petty officer, assisted by the second motor-man and
the German stoker petty officer, succeeded in starting

150 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

one engine, and course was shaped for the Irish coast,
all sail being set ; but the nearest land was 120 miles
to the north-east.

That night passed, and the next day, and the fore-
noon of the day following ; but on the afternoon of
May 2 the Irish coast was sighted, and Prize was
picked up 5 miles west of the Old Head of Kinsale
by H.M.M.L. 161 (Lieutenant Hannah, R.N.V.R.),
who towed her into Kinsale, where the wounded
were disembarked. On May 4 — that notable sunny
day when the first United States destroyers reached
Queenstown from America — Prize, still with her
three German prisoners on board, left Kinsale Har-
bour, towed by H.M. Drifter Rival II., who took
her to Milford. But on the way Prize sighted a
German mine-laying submarine on the surface 2 miles
away to the southward. The crew therefore went to
action stations, and for an hour the enemy steered on
a parallel course, but finally the latter drew ahead
and disappeared. Arrived in Milford the prisoners
were taken ashore, and the Prize at length came to
rest.

It has been told me by one who ought to know,
that when Von Spiegel came aboard Prize, after being
picked up out of the water, he remarked to Sanders :
' The discipline in the German Navy is wonderful,
but that your men could have quietly endured our
shelling without reply is beyond all belief Before
leaving the Prize he said good-bye to Sanders and
extended an invitation to stay with him on his
Schleswig-Holstein estate after the war. No one
will deny the extraordinary gallantry ot Prize's crew
and the heroic patience in withholding their fire until
the psychological moment, though the temptation
was very trying. To Lieutenant W. E. Sanders was

THE GOOD SHIP 'PRIZE' 151

awarded the Victoria Cross, and he was promoted to
the rank of Temporary Lieut.-Commander, R.N.R.
To Lieutenant W. D. Beaton, R.N.R., was awarded
a D.S.O. ; the two skippers each received a D.S.C.,
and the rest of the brave ship's company the D.S.JNI.
But the ending of this story is yet to be told.
U 93 was not sunk, but got safely back to Germany !
Von Spiegel had thought she was sunk, and the crew
of Prize were not less certain. She had been holed
in her starboard ballast tank, in her starboard fuel
tank, and her conning-tower, and she was assuredly
in a very bad way. If it had been daylight she would
most certainly have been finally destroyed ; as it was
she was unable to dive, and escaped in the darkness
deprived of her wireless. Sub-Lieutenant Ziegler
took over the command, with one of his crew killed,
three wounded, and three already taken prisoners.
With the utmost difficulty, and compelled to navigate
all the time on the surface, he managed to get his
craft home. It was certainly a fine achievement ; the
Kaiser was much impressed, and promoted him to
lieutenant. But, at the time, we in this country had
never supposed that any submarine could stand so
much battering. It is interesting to bear this incident
in mind when reading other accounts in this book,
where it seemed so sure that the submarine must
have been sunk : yet the greatest care has been taken
to verify every enemy submarine sunk, and in each
case the number has been given. But U 93 was
doomed, and had not much longer to live after her
refit. Early in the following January, one fine clear
morning at a quarter past four, the time when human
nature is at its weakest and most collisions occur at
sea, this submarine was rammed by a steamer and sunk
for the last time.

152 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

After her very necessary refit, Lieut.-Commander
Sanders still remained in the Prize. Admiral Jellicoe,
First Sea Lord, had sent for him and offered him
command of another ship : he could have had a
destroyer, a P-boat, or any ship within reason, but
his undaunted spirit, to which Lord Jellicoe on
arriving in New Zealand after the war paid such
high tribute, refused a safer appointment, and pre-
ferred to carry on. 1 have been told by an officer
who enjoyed Sanders' friendship and confidence at
this time, that he went out to sea again with the
consciousness that before long he would have played
the live-bait game too far, and that the fish would
get away with the bait. If that is true, then we
must admire Sanders still more for his heroism in his
devotion to duty. It is surely of this stuff that the
great martyrs of Christendom have been made.

On June 12, 1917 — that is, six weeks after the
previous incident, just time enough to give leave to
all the crew, get the ship refitted and sailed to her
new area — Prize left Killybegs (Ireland) to cruise to
the westward of the Irish coast. At 11 a.m. on this
day she was under all sail on a N.N. W. course, doing
not more than a knot through the water, when she
sighted a submarine 1^ miles to the E.S.E. proceed-
ing slowly on the same course as Prize. The move-
ments of this submarine thereafter are worth noting.
It is only reasonable to suppose that on his return to
Germany in U 93 Ziegler would give a full description
of the trap-ship which had so nearly destroyed him.
This information would, of course, be passed on to
the other submarine captains who frequented this
Irish area, and we may be quite certain that they
would be on the look-out for her, anxious to revenge
their service. Now, in these modern times, and in

THE GOOD SHIP 'PRIZE' 153

any twenty-four hours, you will see far more steamers
of all sorts than 200-ton sailing craft : it certainly was
so during the war off the west and south-west coast
of Ireland. During the years I was on patrol there,
with the exception of quite small local fishing craft
and an occasional full-rigged ship making the land
after her voyage across the Atlantic, one scarcely ever
sighted a sailing vessel of any kind. Ziegler would
have reported in effect : ' Look out for a three-masted
topsail schooner of about 200 tons. She has a bow
like this . . ., her stern is like this . . ., and her
sheer is so . . . You will probably find she has a dummy
deckhouse placed here . . . ;' and a rough sketch
would afford his comrades a pretty accurate idea.
You cannot ever disguise the appearance of such a
sailing ship altogether, no matter what name you
give her, nor what colour you paint her hull. A
three-masted topsail schooner is that and nothing
else, and would henceforth be regarded with the
utmost suspicion. Then, on comparing her with the
sketch and examining her with the eye of seamanlike
experience, no astute submarine officer could have
had much doubt in his mind. A British officer who
knew this ship well has told me that in his opinion
there was one small detail, in respect of the wireless,
which, to a careful observer, would always give her
character away. This may be so : at any rate, the
following incidents seem to indicate that the enemy
were on the look-out for her during the rest of her
career, and persistently attacked her.

On the occasion of June 12, as soon as the sub-
marine came to the surface and opened fire. Prize as
usual, after the necessary intentional bungling, sent
away her boat, which took up a position half a mile
away on the starboard bow. The enemy kept on

154 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

firing, and at 11.30 the schooner was hit twice, so
three minutes later, as the enemy was turning away
to increase the range, Sanders ordered the screens to
be lowered, and opened fire from both starboard guns
at 1,800 yards. One shell seemed to hit, and the
enemy immediately dived. But two hours later a
submarine was seen on the surface 4 miles away on
the starboard quarter, and remained in sight for a
quarter of an hour. Then next morning at 6.30 a
submarine was sighted stopped, 1^ miles ahead on
the surface. Five minutes later he dived, but came
up after four minutes 1,500 yards off on the starboard
bow. At 6.43 he again dived, and was not seen again.
Probably eacli of these three appearances was the
same submarine. On the first he was repulsed, on
the second he would have a perfect opportunity of
making a detailed sketch, on the third he may have
been intending to attack by torpedo, but the westerly
swell from the Atlantic possibly interfered with
accurate firing. But, apart from all surmise, it is
absolutely evident that the enemy was able to obtain
a picture of the schooner, which beyond all doubt
would establish her identity on a future occasion.
The importance of this will presently be seen.

For this action of June 12 Lieut. -Commander
Sanders was given a D.S.O. to wear with his V.C.
He had had a very trying time. When, at 11.30,
the German shells had hit, the falls of the port davit
had been shot away, and another shot had struck the
ship on the starboard side amidships just on the top
of the sheer strake plate. This shell had exploded
and caused the ship to leak. Lieut. -Commander
Sanders, who was lying concealed between the mast
and the hatch, put up his arms to shield his face from
the burst fragments and so received a piece of shell

THE GOOD SHIP ' PRIZE ' 155

in his right arm above the wrist. In addition, the
force of the explosion knocked him over and hurled
him to the other side of the deck, where he was picked
up by Skipper Mead. In spite of the pain and the
shock, Sanders was just sufficiently conscious to give
the order 'Action' at 11.33, when screens were
downed. White Ensign run up, and fire was returned.
The schooner came back to her base, her gallant
captain recovered from his wound, and two months
later we find her operating in the Atlantic again to
the north-west of the N.W. Irish coast. On this
occasion she was cruising with one of our D -class
submarines, the idea being that when the enemy
came along Prize would be attacked and heave-to in
the customary manner, while the British submarine
would stealthily make for the enemy and torpedo
him whilst, so to speak, he was not looking.

On the forenoon of August 13, imagine this
schooner w4th her newly-painted black topsides and
red boot-topping, flying the Swedish flag and heading
east. Suddenly UB 48 was sighted to the north, so
Sanders hove-to and signalled the British submarine
that there was a German submarine to port. Shells
began to be fired from the enemy, who closed. The
British submarine saw the shots falling but could not
see the enemy until 4.10 p.m., when the German
was descried to starboard of the Prize. There was
a considerable lop on at the time, and Prize was seen
with White Ensign flying at the peak, and her guns
manned. Five hours later the British submarine
came to the surface and spoke Prize, who stated that
she had opened fire on the enemy at 200 yards, and
had hit him. This we now know from another source
was perfectly true, but the hits were not in a vital
part of the German. During the dark hours UB 48

156 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

bided his time, and at midnight fired two torpedoes,
the second of which hit, causing a terrific explosion,
so that nothing more was seen, and the good ship
Prhe, with her gallant captain and all his brave men,
ended her career after one of the most brilliant
periods that can be found in the records of sea
achievement. UB 48 was on her maiden voyage
from Germany via the north of Scotland and N.W.
of Ireland to Cattaro in the Adriatic, where she
arrived on September 2, sinking merchantmen on the
way. This modern type of submarine, with her
4 "1 -inch gun and her ten torpedoes, was a difficult
craft to sink. Her second officer had been taken
from the German Mercantile Marine, so we can
assume that his critical eye would scrutinize the
schooner and detect something which convinced his
captain that this was really a trap-ship. That the
submarine should have been content, whilst on a
long passage, to waste so many hours over a mere
sailing craft of quite small tonnage would have been
doubtful ; but the Prize having once shown her
White Ensign and used her guns to effect decided
the German that she must be settled with after dark,
when she would be a good target in that August
night. It was a fair fight, but the chances were all
in favour of the German, since it is practically im-
possible to see a periscope at night, whereas the
Q-ship's sails would loom up and show in which
direction the target was heading ; and, further, the
submarine had the advantage of mobility all the time.
The facts which have just been stated are authentic,
and it is as well that they should now be made known.
Ignorance always breeds falsehood, and after the loss
of P?ize there were all sorts of wild stories going
about both in the Service and in the Mercantile

THE GOOD SHIP 'PRIZE' 157

Marine. Some of them are too ghastly to be related,
but a favourite version was that the brave Sanders
had been taken prisoner and lashed to the submarine's
periscope, which then submerged and so drowned him.
Another story, which was very prevalent, was that he
had been cruelly murdered. There is not a wo.rd of
truth in these suggestions. Lieut. - Commander
Sanders died as he would have wished, aboard his
ship with his men. His body rests in the Atlantic
where the remains of his glorious Prize sank : but
his memorial, unveiled by Lord Jellicoe as Governor
of New Zealand, will inspire generations who come
after.

For dogged devotion to dangerous duty, for cool-
ness in peril, for real leadership of men, for tenacity
in ' sticking it,' this hero among those great and
gallant gentlemen of the Q-ship service will remain
as a model of what a true British sailor should be.
Had he lived, his influence would have been tremen-
dous, but by his refusing a safe billet when he was
fully entitled to it, and preferring deliberately to
court death because that way duty and honour
pointed, his example should be a great source of
strength to every young apprentice beginning his life
in the Merchant Service, every midshipman of His
Majesty's Navy, and every young man content to
learn the lessons which are taught only by the sea.
On land, for their historic exploits at the Dardanelles
and in France we gratefully remember the Australians
and New Zealanders. It is fitting that one of the
latter should have bequeathed to us such distinction
on the sea : it is characteristic of the great co-opera-
tion when the children of the Empire flocked to help
their mother in her throes of the World AVar.

CHAPTER XII

SHIPS AND ADVENTURES

Independence of character is a great asset in any
leader of men, but it is an essential, basic virtue when
a man finds himself in command of a ship : without
such an attribute he is dominated either by his
officers, his own emotions, or the vagaries of chance.
In the case of a Q-ship captain, this aloofness was
raised to a greater degree of importance by reason of
the special nature of the work. Can you think of
any situation more solitary and lonely than this ?
There are, of course, all kinds and conditions of
loneliness. There is the loneliness of the airman
gliding through celestial heights ; there is the loneli-
ness of the man in the crowd ; there is the loneliness
of the sentry, of the hermit, of the administrator in
the desert. But I can conceive of nothing so solitary
as the Q-ship captain lying alone on the planking of
his bridge, patiently waiting and watching through a
slit in the canvas the manoeuvres of an artful U-boat.
Such a figure is morally and physically alone. He
is the great brain of the ship ; at his word she is
transformed from a tramp to a warship. It is he who
has to take the fateful, and perhaps fatal, decision ;
and to none other can he depute this responsibility as
long as life lasts. Only a big character, strong and
independent, can tackle such a proposition. Alone,
too, he is physically. Most of his men have left the

158

SHIPS AND ADVENTURES 159

ship and are over there in the boats, sometimes
visible on the top of the w^ave, sometimes obliterated
in the trougli. The rest of his crew are somewhere
below the bridge, under the bulwarks, at their guns,
crouching out of sight. His officers are at their
respective stations, forward, aft, and amidships,
connected to him by speaking-tubes, but otherwise
apart. He himself, arbiter of his own fate, his men,
and his ship, has to fight against a dozen contending
impulses, and refuse to be panic-stricken, hasty, or
impetuous. This much is expected of him ; his crew
are relying on him blindly, absolutely. However, by
long years of experience and moulding of character
he has learnt the power of concentration and of
omitting from his imagination the awful possibilities
of failure. Before putting to sea, and whilst on
patrol, he has envisaged every conceivable circum-
stance and condition likely to occur. He has
mentally allowed for every move of the submarine,
for the wounding of his own ship : and he has had the
ship's action stations thus worked out. Accidents
will, of course, occur to spoil any routine, though
some of these, such as the breakdown of the wireless
and the bursting of a gun, or the jamming of a screen,
may be foreseen and allowed for.

But after all that could be prepared for has been
done, there always remains some awkward possibility
which the wit of man can never foresee. Take the
incident of the Q-ship Ravenstone, which was com-
missioned as a Q-ship on June 26, 1917, under the
name of Donlevon. A month later she was
torpedoed one afternoon in the Atlantic, 40
miles south of the Fastnet. Fortunately there were
no casualties, and fortunately, too, the ship did not
straight away founder. There was a heavy sea

160 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

running, and she was soon down by the head ; but
she was also prevented from using her engines, for the
torpedo had struck her in No. 2 hold, and the force
of the explosion had lifted and thrown overboard
from the fore well-deck a 7-inch hemp hawser. This
had fallen into the sea, floated aft, and there fouled
the propeller so effectually that the ship could go
neither ahead nor astern. It was a most annoying
predicament, but who could have foreseen it ? The
submarine apparently ' hopped it,' for she made no
further attack, and one of Admiral Bayly's sloops,
H.M.S. Camelia, stood by Donlevon, and from Bere-
haven arrived the tug Flying Spray, who got her in
tow. Another sloop, the Myosotis, had her in tow for
thirty -one hours, handling her so well in the heavy
sea that, in spite of Donlevon being down by the head
and steering like a mad thing, she safely arrived in
Queenstown, and was afterwards paid out of the
Service. Ten thousand pounds' worth of damage had
been done.

In the early summer of 1917, at a time when the
United States Navy had just begun to help us with
their destroyers and the enemy was hoping very
shortly to bring us ' to our knees,' we had thirteen
different Q-ships based on Queenstown. There was
the converted sloop Aubrietia, commanded by
Admiral Marx, M.V.O., D.S.O., who, in spite ot
his years, had come back to the Service and accepted
a commission as captain R.N.R. For a time he was
in command of H.M. armed yacht Beryl, owned by
Lord Inverclyde. From this command he trans-
ferred to the more exciting work of decoying sub-
marines, and it is amusing when one thinks of an
admiral pretending to be the skipper of a little
tramp. Of this thirteen there was Captain Grenfell's

SHIPS AND ADVENTURES 161

Penskurst, about which the reader has already been
informed. Captain Gordon Campbell was in Pargust,
and Commander Leopold A. Bernays, C.M.G., was
in Fala. The latter was one of the most unusual
personalities in a unique service. Before the war he
had left the Navy and gone to Canada, where he had
some pretty tough adventures. On the outbreak of
war he joined up, and crossed to England as a soldier,
but managed to get transferred quite early to a mine-
sweeping trawler, where he did magnificent work
month after month ; first in sweeping up the mine-
field laid off Scarborough at the time of the German
raid, December, 1914, and afterwards in clearing up
the difficult Tory Island minefield, which had been
laid by Berlin in October, 1914, but was not rendered
safe for many months afterwards. When in the
summer of 1915 a British minesweeping force was
required for Northern Russia, Bernays was sent out
with his trawlers. Here, with his usual thoroughness
and enthusiasm, he set to work, and again performed
most valuable service, and buoyed a safe channel for
the ships carrying munitions from England to voyage
in safety.

But Bernays was no respecter of persons, especially
of those who were not keen on their job. With
Russian dilatoriness and inefficiency, and in particular
with the Russian admiral, he soon found himself
exasperated beyond measure. His own trawlers
were working in the most strenuous fashion, whereas
the Russians seemed only to be thwarting instead of
helping, and at any rate were not putting their full
weight into the contest. 1 do not know whether the
yarn about Bernays in exasperation pulling the beard
of the overbearing Russian admiral is true, but there
was a big row, and Bernays came back to England,

11

162 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

though for his good work he received the coveted
British order C.M.G. After further minesweeping
off the Scotch coast, where once more he distinguished
himself, he came to Queenstown to serve in his
Q-ship. Here he went about his job in his usual
fearless manner, and on one occasion had played a
submarine as he used to play a fish. He had slowed
down, and the U-boat was coming nicely within
range, when just as everything was ready for the bait
to be swallowed, up came a United States destroyer
at high speed to ' rescue ' this ' tramp.' The sub-
marine was frightened away , and Vala lost her fish
Then one day Bernays took Vala on another cruise.
What happened exactly we do not know, but evi-
dently a submarine got her, and sank her without
a trace, for neither ship nor crew was ever heard of
again.

Bernays was just the man for Q-ship work. He
was one whom you would describe as a 'rough
customer,' who might have stepped out of a Wild
West cinema. A hard swearer in an acquired
American accent, in port also a hard drinker ; but
on going to sea he kept everything locked up, and
not even his officers were allowed to touch a drop till
they got back to harbour. The first time I met
him was at :3 o'clock one bitterly cold winter's
morning in Grimsby. It was blowing a gale of wind
and it was snowing. Some of his minesweepers had
broken adrift and come down on to the top of my
craft, and were doing her no good. There was
nothing for it but to rouse Bernays. His way of
handling men, and these rough North Sea fishermen,
was a revelation. It was a mixture of hard Navy,
Prussianism, and Canadian ' get-to-hell-out-of-this-
darned-hole.' There was no coaxing in his voice ;

SHIPS AND ADVENTURES 163

every syllable was a challenge to a fight. On the
forebridge of his trawler he used to keep a bucket
containing lumps of coal, and in giving an order
would at times accentuate his forcible and coloured
words by heaving a lump at any of his slow-thinking
crew.

Having said all this, you may wonder there was
never a mutiny ; but such a state of affairs was the
last thing that could ever happen in any of Bernays'
ships. From a weak man the crew would not have
stood this treatment a day, but they understood
him, they respected him, they loved him, and in his
command of the English tongue they realized that
he was like unto themselves, but more adept. Follow
him ? They followed him everywhere — through the
North Sea, through Russian and Irish minefields,
and relied on him implicitly. And this regard was
mutual, for in spite of his rugged manner Bernays
had a heart, and he thought the world of his crew.
I remember how pleased he was the day he was
ordered to go to the dangerous Tory Island mine-
field. ' But I'm not going without my old crew ;
they're the very best in the world.' Bernays, as
an American officer once remarked, ' certainly was
some tough proposition,' but he knew no cowardice ;
he did his brave duty, and he rests in a sailor's grave.

Another of these thirteen was the converted sloop
Begonia, commanded by Lieut. -Commander Basil
S. Noake, R.N., an officer of altogether different
temperament. Keen and able, yet courteous and
gentle of manner, tall, thin, and suffering somewhat
from deafness, this gallant officer, too, paid the great
penalty. For Begonia was destined to have no
ordinary career. Built as a minesweeping sloop, she
carried out escort and patrol work until one day she

164 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

was holed, but managed to get into Queenstown.
Here she was repaired and transformed into a decoy,
with a counter added instead of her cruiser stern, and
with the addition of derricks and so on she was a
very clever deception. During one cruise she was
evidently a victim to the enemy, for she disappeared,
too.

The remaining ships of this thirteen were the Acton
(Lieut-Commander C.N. Rolfe,R.N.),Z2///?//rt(Lieut.-
Commander John K. McLeod, R.N.), Cullist (Lieut-
Commander S. H. Simpson, D.S.O., R.N.), Tamarisk
(Lieut. - Commander John W. Williams, D.S.O.,
R.N.R.), Viola (Lieut-Commander F. A. Frank,
D.S.O., R.N.R.), Salvia (Lieut. - Commander W.
Olphert, D.S.O., D.S.C., R.N.R.), Laggan (Lieu-
tenant C. J. Alexander, R.N.R.), and Heather
(Lieutenant Harold Auten, R.N.R.). In this list
there is scarcely a name that did not receive before
the end of the war at least one D.S.O., while two
of them received the Victoria Cross.

Acton had an indecisive duel with a submarine on
August 20, 1917. It was a fine day with a calm sea
when the enemy was sighted, and on being attacked
Acton abandoned ship. In order to make this doubly
real, fire-boxes were started in the well-deck, and
steam leakage turned on, which made the ship look
as if she were on fire. The enemy inspected the ship
closely, so closely in fact that he actually collided
with Acton, shaking the latter fore and aft. But
after he had come to the surface and Acton opened
fire, hitting, loud shouts came from the conning-
tower, and he submerged, thus escaping. Acton
went on with her work until the end of hostilities.

Zylplia and Cullist both had tragic ends to their
careers. Zylpha was a 2,917-ton steamer, built at

SHIPS AND ADVENTURES 165

Sunderland in 1894, and had been commissioned as a
Q-ship as far back as October, 1915. Early in June,
1917, she steamed along the south Irish coast and then
out into the Atlantic, as if bound for New York. On
June 11, at 9.45 a.m., when about 200 miles from
the Irish coast, she was torpedoed by a submarine
that was never seen again, and totally disabled. Her
engines had stopped for the last time, and the sea
had poured in, though her closely-packed cargo of
wood was at present keeping her afloat. Having
' bleated ' with her wireless, one of the United States
destroyers, based on Queenstown, proceeded to her
assistance. This was the Warrington, and she stood
by the ship for a whole tv>^enty-four hours — ^from
2 p.m. of the eleventh until 2.30 p.m. of the twelfth.
By the time Warrington had arrived Zylplms engine-
room and boiler-rooms were already awash, Nos. 2
and 3 holds flooded, the wireless out of action, and
one man killed. The Warrington kept patrolling
round her, requested a tug by wireless, and went on
zigzagging through the long hours. By the evening
Zylplia was in a bad way, and the Atlantic swell was
seriously shaking the bulkheads, but she was still
afloat next morning. By this time the Waiiington,
who had been some time on patrol, was running short
of oil, so, at 2.30 p.m., regretfully had to return to
harbour for fuel.

This was a sad blow to the Zyljiha people, but
whilst waiting for the arrival of the U.S. destroyer
Lh^ayton and two Queenstown tugs which were being
sent to her, Zylpha actually made sail with what little
canvas she had, and made good at 1|^ knots. At noon
of the fourteenth she was picked up by H.M. sloop
Daffodil, and was then taken in tow. Next day, at
1 p.m., tugs reached her, but she could not last out

166 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

the night, and, after having been towed for most of
200 miles, she gradually sank when quite near to the
west coast, finally disappearing at 11.20 p.m. near the
Great Skelligs. So ended ZylpJia.

Cullist was commanded by an officer who had served
a long time off this coast in a sloop. Her real name
was the IVestphalia, but she was also known as the
Jurassic, Hay ling, and Prim. She was of 1,030 gross
tons, and in the spring of 1917 was lying at Calais,
when she was requisitioned and sent to Pembroke
Naval Dockyard to be fitted out. She was commis-
sioned on May 12 by Lieut.-Commander Simpson,
and Admiral Bayly then sent her to cruise along
certain trade routes. She was capable of steaming
about 10 knots, and was armed with a 4-inch and
two 12-pounder guns, as w^ell as a couple of torpedo-
tubes, and all these had been well concealed. A
few weeks later, on July 13, Cullist was between the
Irish and French coasts, and it was just after 1 p.m.
when a submarine appeared on the horizon.

About two minutes later the enemy from very long
range opened fire, but as his shots were falling about
3,000 yards short, he increased speed towards the
Cullist. By 1.30 a large merchant ship was seen
coming up from the south, so Cullist hoisted the
signal ' You are standing into danger,' whereupon the
big steamer altered course away. Cullist then zig-
zagged, keeping always between sun and enemy, and
by dropping eight smoke-boxes at various intervals
succeeded in enticing the submarine down to a range
of 5,000 yards, a distance which was maintained for
the rest of the action. From 1.45 the enemy con-
tinually straddled Cullist so that the decks were wet
with the splashes, and shell splinters were rattling on
masts and deck. By 2.7 the enemy had fired sixty-

SHIPS AND ADVENTURES 167

eight rounds, but had not hit once. Cullist now
decided to engage, and her third round was seen to
hit just below the submarine's gun, the remainder
hitting regularly along the deck and on the conning-
tower, causing bright red flames which rose higher
than the conning- tower. Three minutes after Cullist
had opened fire the enemy sank by the bows in
flames, and then the ship steamed to the spot and
dropped a depth charge. Three of Cullisfs crew saw
a corpse dressed in blue dungarees, floating face up-
wards, but the submarine was never seen again. By
3.30 H.M.S. Christopher arrived on the scene and
both ships searched for the enemy. He was evidently
seriously damaged, but he had made his escape.
Lieut.-Commander Simpson, for this engagement,
was awarded a D.S.O ; Lieutenant G. Spencer,
R.N.II., a D.S.C. ; Sub-Lieutenant G. H. D. Double-
day, R.N.R., also a D.S.C. ; while two other officers
were ' mentioned.'

Cullisfs next adventure was on August 20 in the
English Channel, when she was shelled for most of
two and a half hours at long range, during which the
submarine expended over eighty rounds with only
one hit. This, however, had penetrated the waterline
of the stokehold, injuring both firemen who happened
to be on watch, and causing a large rush of water into
the stokehold. By plugging the hole and shoring it
up this defect was for the present made good. At
7.25 p.m., inasmuch as the light was fading and the
enemy declined to come nearer than 4,000 yards,
Cullist started shelling and seemed to make two
direct hits on the base of the conning-tower. This
was enough for the German, who then dived very
rapidly and made off. Cullist was practically un-
injmed, for the only other hits on her had been that

168 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

the port depth charge had been struck with shell
splinters and the patent log-line had been shot away.
But on the eleventh of the following February a
much more serious attack was made, and this illus-
trates the statement that suddenly without the
slightest warning a Q-ship might find herself in the
twinkling of an eye changed from an efficient man-
of-war into a mere wreck. Cullist at the time was
steaming on a southerly course down the Irish Sea,
Kingstown Harbour being to the westward. The
officer of the watch and the look-out men were at
their posts, and Lieut. -Commander Simpson was
walking up and down the deck. Suddenly, from
nowhere, the track of a torpedo was seen approaching,
and this struck the ship between the engine-room and
No. 3 hold. Lieut.-Commander Simpson was hurled
into the air and came down on to the edge of the
deck with a very painful arm. Realizing the con-
dition of the Cullist, he ordered his men to abandon
ship, but such was the zeal of the crew in remaining
at action stations until the last moment that many of
them were drowned : for in less than two minutes
Cullist had gone to the bottom. This part of the
Irish Sea then consisted of a number of Englishmen
swimming about or keeping alive on a small Carley
float. The submarine when half a mile astern of
where Cullist sank, came to the surface and rapidly
approached. Then she stopped, picked up two men,
inquired for the captain, examined survivors through
glasses, and having abused them by words and
gestures, made off to the southward. After swimming
about for some time, Lieut.-Commander Simpson
was then pulled on to the Carley float, which is a
special kind of raft, very shallow, painted Navy grey,
and usually supplied with a paddle such as you find

SHIPS AND ADVENTURES 169

in a Canadian canoe. It was a bleak February after-
noon, and here were a few men able to keep from
death by joining hands on this crowded raft. As the
hours went on, the usual trying thirst assailed them
and the fatal temptation to drink the sea-water, but
the captain wisely and sternly prevented this. How
long they would be left crowded in this ridiculous
raft, cold and miserable, no one knew : it was
obvious that human strength could not last out
indefinitely.

But just as it was getting dusk, about 6 p.m., a
trawler was seen. Relief at last ! Someone who
held the Canadian paddle kept it high to make it more
easy for the trawler to recognize them. It was a
patrol trawler, for the gun was visible ; in a few
moments they would be rescued. But just then
these sopping-wet survivors were horrified to see the
trawler manning her gun and laying it on to the raft.
What hideous mistake was this ? ' Sing at the top
of your voices.' So they sang ' Tipperary ' with all
the strength they had left. Then a slight pause was
followed by the trawler dismissing the gun's crew and
coming towards them as quickly as her engines would
go round. The survivors were picked up and taken
into Kingstown, where they landed about 10 p.m.,
and none too soon for some of them. By the time
they were in hospital they were almost done. But
what was the trawler's explanation ? She had sighted
something in the half-light which resembled a sub-
marine, and on examining it again it still more
resembled such a craft. There was the conning-
tower painted grey, and there was the periscope too.
It was only when the unmistakable sound of British
voices chanting ' Tipperary ' reached their ears that
they looked again and found that the 'periscope' was

170 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

the Canadian paddle, and the ' conning-tower ' was
the men Hnked together imposed on the grey Carley
float.

But it had been a near thing !

Even more varied was the career of the Privet
(ahas Island Queen, Q 19, Szvisher, and Alcala).
This was a small steamer of 803 tons, which had
begun her service in December, 1916, her captain
being Lieut. -Commander C. G. Matheson, R.N.R.
On the following twelfth of March she was on
passage from Land's End to Alderney, and was
steaming at 9 knots, when just before three in the
afternoon a torpedo was seen to pass under the ship
at the engine-room. Privet was presently shelled by
the submarine, who rose to the surface on the star-
board side aft, the first nine rounds hitting Privet five
times. One of these rounds burst among the ' aban-
don ship ' party, causing many casualties and destroy-
ing the falls of both boats. Privefs hull had been
badly holed, and she was compelled to send out a
wireless S.O.S. signal, stating that her engines were
disabled, but two minutes later she opened fire with
her port battery — she was armed with four 12-
pounders — and during the first seven rounds the
enemy received punishment, being hit abreast the
fore part of the conning-tower, and twice well abaft
the conning-tower. The German now tried to escape
by submerging, but evidently he found his hull
leaking so badly that he was seen trying to reach the
surface again by using his engines and hydroplanes.
Thus Privet managed to get in a couple more hits
and then the U-boat disappeared stern first at an
angle of forty-five degrees. Privet in this manner
had definitely sunk U 85, belonging to the biggest
U- class submarines, 230 feet long, armed with two
guns and twelve torpedoes. The whole incident,

SHIPS AND ADVENTURES 171

from the moment the torpedo was fired to the
destruction of the attacker, had covered forty-
minutes ; but now, ten minutes later, Privefs
engine-room was reported to be filHng up with
water owing to one of the enemy's shells getting
home. Twenty minutes later the chief engineer
reported that the water was now over the plates
and rising. Efforts were made to plug the hole with
hammocks and timber, but this was found impossible,
and this small ship, in spite of her victory, was in
great peril. After another few minutes the men and
wounded were ordered into the lifeboat and skiff, for
the engine-room was full of water and the after bulk-
head might give way suddenly any minute. Half an
hour later this actually happened, but by this time
the two British destroyers Christopher and Orestes
had arrived on the scene.

Privet was in a pitiable condition, and, after throw-
ing overboard confidential books and rendering the
depth charges safe, she was finally abandoned, though
she did not at once sink. In fact, an hour and a
half later she was still afloat ; so Lieut. -Commander
JNlatheson, his officers, a seaman, and a working party
from Orestes went back on board her, and within an
hour Orestes had begun to tow her under great
difficulties. However, everything went fairly well
until they were approaching Plymouth Sound, when
Privefs last bulkheads collapsed, and she started now
to settle down quickly. This was rather hard luck,
having regard to what she had gone through, but
there was no mistake about it, she was sinking fast.
Those in charge of her are to be congratulated, for
they were able just in time to get her into shoal water,
and she sank in only 4j fathoms opposite the Pickle-
comb Fort, and that closed chapter one in her not
uninteresting career.

172 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

From this position she was very soon raised, taken
into Devonport, and recommissioned at the end of
April. Thus, having sunk a submarine and herself
being sunk, she returned to the same kind of work,
and actually succeeded in sinking another submarine
on the night of November 8-9, 1918, this being the
last to be destroyed before Armistice. The incident
occurred in the Mediterranean and the submarine was
U 34. Truly a remarkable career for such a small
steamer, but a great tribute to all those brains and
hands who in the first instance fitted her out, fought
in her, got her into Plymouth Sound, salved her,
fitted her out again, took her to sea, and undauntedly
vanquished the enemy once more ! In the whole
realm of naval history there are not many ships that
can claim such a record against an enemy.

Another trying incident was that which occurred
to the 1,295-ton steamer Mavis (alias Q 26 and
Nyroca), armed with a 4-inch and two 12-pounders.
This vessel had been fitted out at Devonport, her
Merchant Service cranes being landed and replaced by
dummy derricks. The hatches to her holds were
plated over, access to the same being provided by
manholes. In order to give her the maximum
chance should she ever be torpedoed, she was bal-
lasted with closely packed firewood ; and only those
who have seen torpedoed ships carrying a cargo of
timber can realize for what a long time such an
apparently sinking ship will keep afloat, though
necessarily deep in the water. I remember, during
the war, the case of a steamer torpedoed off Brow
Head (south-west Ireland) after she had just arrived
from across the Atlantic. She was deserted by her
crew, the sea was over the floors of her upper-deck
cabins, and she was obviously a brute to steer in such

SHIPS AND ADVENTURES 173

an unseaworthy condition, but with great difficulty
and some patience we managed to tow her into port,
where, owing to her sinking condition, she drew so
much water that she touched the ground every low
tide. But she was salved and eventually patched up.
It was her timber cargo which had kept her afloat
just long enough, and inasmuch as ship and freight
were worth no less than £250,000, this was more
than worth while. So it was with Mavis.

On the last day of May, 1917, under command of
Commander Adrian Keyes, R.N., this Q-ship had left
Devonport to cruise in the Atlantic. At 6.45 a.m.
on June 2 she sighted a ship's lifeboat coming along
under sail and found it contained three men who
were in a very exhausted condition. These w^ere the
survivors from the Greek S.S. A^. Hadziaka, which
had been torpedoed and sunk a little further to the
westward. This torpedoing had occurred in a heavy
sea, and in lowering away the boats, one of them had
been smashed and the other swamped. The captain
and twenty-two men had clung to the wreckage when
the German submarine broke surface, approached,
but made no attempt at rescue, and then went
away. For forty-eight hours these wretched men
kept more or less alive in the water and then gradu-
ally dropped off one by one until only three remained.
These then managed to patch one boat, upright her,
bale her out, and make sail. They had been saihng
for ten hours during the night when they had the
good luck to be picked up by Mavis, having been
flfty-eight hours without food or water.

Having rescued them. Mavis continued on her
western course, but after dark turned east, setting a
course to pass 10 miles south of the Lizard. During
the following day she passed through considerable

174 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

wreckage. At 9.45 p.m. she was 20 miles south of the
Wolf Rock when a torpedo was seen to break surface
40 yards from the ship on the starboard beam. It
struck Mavis abreast of the engine-room and pene-
trated the side, so that the ship stopped at once, and
both engine-room and boiler-room were flooded. It
was impossible to send out a wireless call, as the
emergency apparatus had been wrecked too, but three
rockets were flred and eventually the destroyer Chris-
topher came up, followed later by the trawler White-
fiiars and several tugs. Then began the difficult
and slow process of towing, and they got her just
inside Plymouth Sound, but by this time she was in
such a crank condition that it was feared she might
capsize, so they managed to beach her in Cawsand
Bay on the west side of the Sound. It was her ballast
of firewood that had saved her from total loss, and for
this both British and Greeks must have felt more
than thankful.

Another incident, which well illustrates the risks
run by these Q-ships, is now to be related. Among
those officers who had retired from the Service and
come back after the outbreak of war was Commander
W. O'G. Cochrane, R.N., who for part of the war
was captain of one of the sloops off the south of
Ireland. In the spring of 1917 1 well remember the
very excellent sport we had in company, but in
separate ships, exploring and destroying the mine-
fields laid by the enemy submarines right along the
whole south coast from Cape Clear to the Old Head
of Kinsale. At the beginning of the following
November, Commander Cochrane left Devonport in
command of the Q-ship Candytuft, together with
a convoy of merchant ships bound for Gibraltar.
Candytuft was disguised to represent a tramp steamer,

Q-suip "Candytuft"

This Q-ship had the misfortune to be attacked by a submarine who used torpedoes
to blow both the bow and stern off the Q-ship. The " Candytuft "" was afterwards

beached on the North African coast.

To face p. 174

SHIPS AND ADVENTURES 175

and on the eighth, when in the vicinity of Cape
St. Vincent, had an encounter with a submarine, in
which the usual tactics were employed. One of the
enemy's shells struck the Q-ship's bridge, exploding
under the bunk in Captain Cochrane's cabin, wrecking
the wireless and steering-gear. Candytuft was able
to fire three shots, but the enemy disappeared, made
off, and was never seen by the Q-ship again.

After having been repaired at Gibraltar, Candytuft
left in company with the merchant ship Tremayne for
Malta. This was on November 16. Two days later
they were off Cap Sigli, when a torpedo crossed
Tremayne s bows, but struck Candytuft on the star-
board quarter, entirely blowing off the ship's stern
and killing all the officers excepting Captain
Cochrane and Lieutenant Phillips, R.N.R., who
was on the bridge, but very badly wounding
Lieutenant Errington, R.N.R.

Vi^ith sound judgment and true unselfishness
Captain Cochrane now ordered Tremayne to make
for Bougie as fast as she could, and in the meantime
the Q-ship hoisted her foresail to assist the ship to
drift inshore. Most of the ship's company were sent
away in boats, only sufficient being kept aboard to
man the two 4-inch guns, and everyone kept out of
sight. Within half an hour a periscope was seen
by Captain Cochrane, concealed behind the bridge
screens. A periscope is a poor target, but it was
fired at, though ineffectually. On came the torpedo,
striking Candytuft just foreward of the bridge, com-
pletely wrecking the fore part of the ship. This
explosion wounded several men in a boat, covered
the bridge with coal barrows and other miscellaneous
wreckage, blew a leading-seaman overboard — happily
he was picked up unhurt— blew Captain Cochrane up

176 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

also, but some of the falling wreckage struck him on
the head, knocked him back inboard, and left him
staggering off the bridge.

Presently the ship gave a sudden jerk, and rid her-
self of her bow, which now floated away and sank.
Candytuft drifted towards the African shore, and
after the captain and one of his crew had gallantly
closed the watertight door at the foreward end of the
mess-deck, up to their middles in water and working
in almost complete darkness, with tables and other
articles washing about, it became time for these last
two to leave the ship. They were taken off by a
French armed trawler and landed at Bougie.
Candytuft, minus bow and stern, drifted ashore on to
a sandy beach, and eventually the two 4-inch guns
were salved. Lieutenant Errington had died before
reaching land, and the wounded had to be left in
hospital. But afterwards some of Candytuft's crew
went to sea in another Q-ship, and so the whole
gallant story went on. Ships may be torpedoed,
but, like the soldiers, sailors never die. They keep
on ' keeping on ' all the time, as a young seaman once
was heard to remark.

Q-SHip "Candytuft"

This shows some of the damage done by the enemy submarine's torpedo. She is
Iving beached and one of the guns is being salved and lowered down the side.

To face p. 176

CHAPTER XIII

MORE SAILING-SHIP FIGHTS

If, in accordance with the dehghtful legend, Drake
during the recent war had heard the beating of his
drum and had ' quit the port o' Heaven,' come back
to hfe again in the service of his Sovereign and
country, he would assuredly have gone to sea in
command of a Q-sailing-ship. His would have been
the Victoria Cross and D.S.O. with bars, and we can
see him bringing his much battered ship into Ply-
mouth Sound as did his spiritual descendants in the
Great War. And yet, witii all the halo of his name,
it is impossible to imagine that, great seaman as he
was, his deeds w^ould be more valiant than those we
are now recording.

If we had, so to speak, put the clock back by the
re-introduction of the fighting sailing ship, it was
an anachronism that was well justified by results.
INlore of these craft and various rigs were still being
taken up. In the spring of 1917 the topsail schooner
Dargle was requisitioned, fitted out at Granton with
a 4-inch and two 12-pounders, and then sent to
Lerwick, whence she operated. Similarly the ketch
George L. Mui?^ (alias G. L. Mu?iro, G.L.M., and
Padre), which was accustomed to trade between Kirk-
wall and the Firth of Forth, was chartered and armed
with a 12-pounder.

On April 22,1917, the 174-ton auxiliary barquentine

177 12

178 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Gaelic (otherwise known as Brig 11, Gobo, and
Q 22), which had been taken up at the end of 1916,
and was armed with a couple of 12-pounders, had a
very plucky fight. She had left Falmouth on the
nineteenth under the command of Lieutenant G.
Irvine, R.N.R., and at 6.30 p.m. w^as now 48 miles
south of the Old Head of Kinsale, steering S.E. under
all fore-and-aft sail. It was a fine, clear day, the sea
was calm, there was little wind, but the ship was
making about 2 knots under sail and starboard motor.
It was a quiet Sunday evening : one of those gentle
spring days which came gladly to the Irish coast after
the long nights and continuous gales of the dark
wdnter. The watch, consisting of four men, were all
aloft getting in the square sails, when one of them
hailed the deck that he could see a submarine about
four points on the starboard bow. She was distant
about 5,000 yards to the southward and steering to
the N.W. at slow speed.

Hands were called down from aloft immediately,
and action stations sounded on the alarm gong. The
enemy began the tactics of keeping well away from
the ship and firing shell after shell, of which six hit
the Gaelic, killing two of the deckhands and wound-
ing four, besides putting the port motor out of action
and seriously damaging the rigging. For a time both
vessels maintained their respective courses, and when
the enemy was bearing a couple of points abaft Gaelics
starboard beam, the sailing ship unmasked her guns
and opened fire. It was now 6.50; the enemy had
already fired twenty rounds, but as soon as the attack
was returned he altered course and despatched a tor-
pedo at 4,000 yards. This luckily Gaelic was able
to avoid in time by starboarding her helm so that the
torpedo missed by about 150 yards, passing parallel

MORE SAITJNG-SHIP FIGHTS 179

along the starboard side. Gaelic s forward gun had
now fired three shots, but her fourth hit the submarine.
By a piece of bad luck, soon after this, the firing pin
of the port forward gun broke and the gun was tem-
porarily out of action, so Gaelic had to be brought
round until the starboard guns would bear. Thus
the fight went on until 7.20 p.m., when the enemy
came round under port helm and started to move
slowly away to the S. W., still firing. Another trouble
now occurred in the barquentine. One of the shells
had caused the fresh-water tank on deck to leak.
This water then came through a hole in the deck on
to the starboard engine, putting it out of action, and
so with both engines useless and no wind the unfor-
tunate Gaelic could not be manoeuvred, though the
guns continued to bear. Firing was maintained and
two more hits were scored on the German target.
About eight o'clock the submarine ceased fire, ported
his helm, headed towards the barquentine, and ten
minutes later, the range being still 4,000 yards, Gaelic
hit him again. This was the end of the action, each
craft having fired about 110 rounds. It seems pretty
certain that though the submarine was not sunk she
was badly knocked about, for she broke off the
engagement and dived. A hand was sent aloft who
reported that he could distinctly see the submarine
below making to the south-east. Gaelic did her best
to follow, but by this time darkness was rapidly
setting in, so with both motors useless, sails and
rigging also in a dreadful condition, she set a course
for the Old Head of Kinsale, and at daybreak, when
10 miles short of that landfall, was picked up by
H.M. sloop Bluebell and towed into Queenstown.
She was then refitted and eventually went out to the
Mediterranean, being based on Gibraltar.

180 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Allusion has been made in another chapter to the
auxiliary schooner Glen (aUas Sidney and Athos),
which began her special service on April 5, 1917,
under Lieutenant R. J. Turnbull, R.N.R. On
May 17 she had a most successful duel, in which she
managed to sink the small UB 39, one of those
submarines about 121 feet long, and possessing
extreme surface speed of 8^ knots, which, armed
with one gun and four torpedoes, used to come out
from Zeebrugge, negotiate the Dover Straits — for
which she was fitted with a net-cutter at the bows —
and then operate in the English Channel. The enemy's
gun was a 22-pounder ; Glen carried a 12-pounder
and a 3-pounder. It was six o'clock in the evening,
and Glen was about 35 miles south of the Needles,
steering north-east, close hauled on the starboard
tack, the wind being E. by S., force 4. There was a
moderate sea on, and the ship was bowling along
under all sail. Suddenly out of nowhere a shot was
heard, and five minutes later could be seen the flash
of a second, and UB 39 was sighted to the south-
ward, 2^ miles away. Gle7i therefore backed her
fore-yard, and eased away all sheets, so as to check
her way. The submarine then ceased firing, but her
captain must have been one of those less experienced
men, who were characteristic of the later stages of
the war, and did foolish things ; for he was indis-
creet enough in this case to close scliooner, who then
'abandoned ship.' On came the German and sub-
merged when 800 yards ofi^ until only her periscope
and part of her bridge dodger were showing. Still
she approached until now she was only 200 yards
distant, steering a course parallel with the schooner
on the latter's starboard side. All this happened so
quickly that the ' panic party ' were just leaving the

y

MORE SAILING-SHIP FIGHTS 181

ship, when UB 39 rose to the surface just abaft the
schooner's beam, and now only 80 yards off. For
such temerity the German, who must have been
amazingly credulous, paid with his life. Lieutenant
Turnbull gave the order for ' action,' and within five
seconds the first shot from the 12-pounder was fired,
wliich fell over the submarine abaft the conning-
tower. The enemy was evidently quite surprised,
for the hatch in the conning-tower was now opened,
and there appeared the head and shoulders of a man
who seemed dazed, and as the second 12-pounder
shell came bursting on the hull under the conning-
tower this man apparently fell back down the hatch.

The submarine now commenced to dive, and as
the stern rose out of the water the third and fourth
shots from the same gun burst on the after part of
the hull in the middle line, the holes made by these
three shots being plainly visible to those in the
schooner. The 3-pounder had also come into action,
and out of six rounds the second shot had hit the
hull on the water-line forward of the conning-tower,
the third had hit her on the water-line under the
gun, the fourth and fifth bursting on the after part of
the hull just as she was sinking, and the sixth burst-
ing on the water as her stern disappeared. Badly
holed, leaking from all these holes, UB 39 Hsted over
to port towards the schooner, vanished from sight
for evermore, and then a large quantity of oil
and bubbles came to the surface. There were no
survivors.

Having definitely disposed of the enemy, it would
be reasonable for the crew of the Glen to feel elated ;
but just as UB 39 was finally disappearing, another
submarine was seen approaching about 4,000 yards off
on the starboard bow. Glen opened fire and the enemy

182 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

submerged, only to reappear about 600 yards away
on the port bow. Glen fired once more, and next
time the submarine appeared a few minutes later on
the port quarter 1,000 yards off. This was happen-
ing while the ' panic party ' were being got on board
again, and thus there was every risk of being tor-
pedoed ; but Glen then proceeded on a northerly
course under sail and motor, and at 7.30 p.m. a very
large submarine was observed 2 miles away on the
starboard beam, heading in about the same direction.
After ten minutes this submarine opened fire, then
turned to pass astern, and continued firing with both
her guns, which Glen answered with both of hers.
About 8 p.m. the duel ceased ; the enemy disappeared
to the west on the look-out evidently for a less
obstinate ship. If you examine the positions on the
chart you will realize that the enemy submarines
were evidently concentrated in mid-Channel in order
to entrap shipping coming up and down and across
the English Channel. They were so placed as to cut
the lines of communication to Cherbourg and at the
same time have a good chance of bagging some liner
bound up along.

This concentration at important centres was
noticeable during the submarine campaign ; in fact,
but a few weeks later Glen was again engaged with an
enemy in the same vicinity. This was on June 25,
the exact position was 14 miles S. by W. of St.
Catherine's Point, and the schooner was sailing close
hauled on the starboard tack, heading S.W. by S.,
doing her 2 knots, when she sighted a vessel
apparently under sail on her port quarter 4 miles
distant. Presently this vessel fired at her, the shot
falling 1,000 yards short. This, of course, was a
submarine, and it was a not unusual thing to attempt

MORE SAILING-SHIP FIGHTS 183

disguise by this means ; for obviously a low-lying
craft on the surface viewed from a distance would
create suspicion. But, parenthetically, it may be
mentioned that this sail device was not always carried
out with common sense, and I remember on one
occasion a submarine giving himself hopelessly away
by motoring at good speed in the eye of the wind
with his sail of course shaking wildly. Such an
unseamanlike act was at once spotted by the nearest
patrol, and the submarine had to dive so hurriedly
that she left the sail on the water.

In the case of Glen the recognition was obvious as
soon as the first shot was fired. Several minutes
later came another, which fell only 60 yards short,
so Glen hove-to and ' abandoned ' ship, the enemy
continuing to fire every few minutes, but the shots
fell just over. Her seventh and eighth shots fell
much closer, in fact so near that their splash flooded
the schooner's deck, and shell splinters struck the
sails and bulwarks. Glen then opened fire with both
guns, but this was a more cautious submarine, who
declined to approach nearer than 4,000 yards, fired
three more rounds, then submerged and made off.

The activity of the submarines during this week
in the neighbourhood of Portland Bill was most
noticeable. Submarines were also stationed in the
western approaches of the English Channel. The
reason for this is not hard to appreciate, for it was on
June 26, the day after the above engagement, that
the first contingent of U.S.A. troops landed in
France on the western coast. Whether the trans-
ports would be bound up Channel to Cherbourg or
Soutliampton, the enemy submarines were lying in
wait ready for them. And it is significant that also
on June 26 the Q-sailing-ship Gaelic sighted a sub-

184 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

marine at the western entrance of the English
Channel and had a short duel with her.

On July 2 Gaelic had another indecisive duel, and
on the tenth Glen (now commanded by Sub-Lieu-
tenant K. Morris, R.N.R.) once more was in action.
This time she was further down Channel, about
45 miles S.W. of Portland Bill. In this incident
the enemy fired several rifle-shots at the panic party
rowing in the boat. An officer appeared at the
conning-tower presently, hailed this rowing boat,
and in good English ordered her to come alongside.
The boat began to do so, but just then something
seemed suddenly to startle the officer, and he dis-
appeared into the conning-tower. Glen opened fire,
and the submarine — one of the UC type— submerged.
She was not sunk, but she had been damaged, and
Sub-Lieutenant Morris was awarded the D.S.C.

We saw just now that submarines were very fond
of hanging about on the approach to Cherbourg.
There was a sound reason for this. The coal-fields
of France were in the hands of the enemy, conse-
quently it fell to us to keep France supplied. From
February, 1917, a system was organized which was
the real beginning of the convoy method soon after-
wards adopted with such beneficial results to our
shipping. This embryonic organization was known
as the 'F.C.T.'— French Coal-Trade Traffic. The
ships would load coal up the Bristol Channel and
then sail independently round to Weymouth Bay.
Having thus collected, they were sailed across to
Cherbourg together in a group, protection being
afforded by trawlers during daylight and moonlight
hours only. As one looked at this heterogeneous
collection of craft, some of them of great age, lying
at anchor off Weymouth Harbour, they seemed dis-

MORE SAILING SHIP FIGHTS 185

tiiictly a curious lot ; but there was a great dearth
of shipping at that time, and any old vessel that
could carry coal and go ahead was worth her weight
in gold. The system was found most successful,
and other group sailings on definite routes, such as
Falmouth- Brest and Dover-Dunkirk, were instituted.

The next development was to have one or two
Q-ships among the convoys, for the most obvious of
reasons, and especially well astern of the convoy, so
that the enemy might take them for stragglers and
sink them before any of the escort could turn back
and help. Then came a still further development,
which had been in the minds of many naval officers
for a long time. Since there was such a scarcity of
tonnage available for general purposes, why not let
the Q-ship, instead of carrying ballast, be loaded
with a proper cargo ? She could easily carry this
without interfering with her fighting ability : in fact,
she would be trimmed more normally, and rather
increase than decrease her power of deception. As
to the possibility of secrecy being lost whilst loading
in port, the armament was very cleverly concealed and
only a little organization was necessary to prevent
her true character being bruited about. The main
difficulty would be when in the presence of neutral
shipping in that particular harbour, but this problem
was capable of solution.

Thus it happened now that in many cases the
Q-ship became also a trader. Be it noted, her
character was not that of an armed merchant ship
which is armed only defensively, but a properly
commissioned warship carrying cargo as well as her
offensive armament. Now, one of these craft was the
two-masted 179-ton brigantine Probus (alias Q 30,
Ready, Thirza, Elixir). She had been purchased by

186 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

the Admiralty in 1915, and fitted with an auxiliary
motor. Then, based on Granton, she had worked
as a decoy in the North Sea.

In JNIay, 1917, having done excellent work as a
pure decoy, we find her as a decoy-trader. Having
loaded up with coal at Granton, she left there on
JNIay 4, and duly arrived at Treguier. From there
she proceeded to Swansea with a cargo of pit-props,
which were much needed by the Welsh coal mines,
seeing that our customary supply from Scandinavia,
via the North Sea, was so endangered at that time.
From Swansea Probus, who was armed with two
12-pounders and two 6-pounders, sailed round to
Falmouth, and at 3.30 on the afternoon of June 20
she set sail for Morlaix in company with twelve
sailing ships and the one steamship escort, the armed
trawler Harlech Castle. Think of it in these modern
days : a dozen sailing vessels coming out past St.
Anthony's Lighthouse ! Truly this war has shown
how history goes on repeating itself. Who would
have thought that sailing-ship convoys, which in
other wars used to assemble and leave Falmouth,
would ever be witnessed again ?

Now, to control a dozen sail you must have sea-
room, so the convoy was arranged thus ; A mile
ahead of the first sailing ship steamed the trawler,
then came the twelve ships spread over 3 miles, and
then 4 miles astern of the last ship, and looking just
as a straggler would be, sailed the Probus. There
was thus a distance of 8 miles between her and the
escort trawler. Most of a day passed before anything
occurred. At 2.15 p.m. on June 21 Probus, still
astern of the convoy, was about 23 miles south-west
of the Start and heading on a course S.E. by S. The
wind was S.W., force 3, and she was doing about

MORE SAILING-SHIP FIGHTS 187

4 knots througli the water, when she observ^ed what
appeared to be a ketch-rigged vessel, steering the
same course, 4 miles away on the starboard quarter ;
but from the rapidity with which the bearing altered,
it was soon obvious that the ketch was not under
sail alone. At 2.30 p.m. the 'ketch' proved her
submarine identity by opening fire, the first shot
falling 10 yards clear of the brigantine's beam.
Probus then hove-to, the crew went to action stations,
and the boat was got ready to be launched, while
the submarine kept up a rapid fire from about 4,000
yards, shells falling unpleasantly close. By now
Probus was heading about S.W. with fore-yards
aback, and, owing to the light wind, was making a
stern board. Then her head fell round slowly to the
west. The enemy was now bearing about W. to
W.S.VV., firing rapidly, and heading to the south-
east so as to cross the brigantine's bows. It was a
beautifully clear summer's afternoon, and you could
see the convoy and the smoke from the escorting
trawler quite easily. After the submarine had main-
tained a continuous long-range fire for ten minutes,
Probus ran up the ^^^hite Ensign, and at 3,500 yards
opened fire with her starboard 12-pounder. The first
round fell 500 yards short, but the crew of the sub-
marine's gun hurriedly left their station and made
for the conning-tower. The second shot seemed to
be a hit, for the enemy, lying across the brigantine's
bows, stopped, and a large cloud of smoke went up,
and he temporarily ceased fire.

Probus then went about on the other tack, and the
enemy took advantage of this to resume firing, while
shots began to fall all round ; but the port 12-pounder
of the British ship now came into action, and the
fourth shot was certainly another hit, for it dismantled

188 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

the German's sails and mast, and raised a cloud of
smoke from the fore part of the conning-tower.
Shelling continued, and the enemy was compelled to
submerge, Probus's parting shot hitting him on the
top of the conning-tower. It was now about 3.30 p.m.,
and nothing was seen of the German until a quarter
of an hour later, when he was sighted 6 miles away
approaching Prohus. He had probably been stopping
his shell-holes, and was now ready to give the sailing
ship the knock-out blow ; but the armed trawler, with
its fishermen crew eager to have a hand in the fight,
was by this time making towards the submarine, and
this compelled the German to break off the engage-
ment and scurry to the north-east.

Unfortunately this duel demonstrated yet again the
great weakness of the sailing ship as a man-of-war.
In the olden days, when the swift-moving galley
fought the sailing carrack or caravel, the galley was
able to press home her attack if the weather fell light,
and left the other ship rolling helpless in the calm,
with yards and tackle grievously creaking and chafing.
The submarine is the modern galley, and the Q-sailing-
ship is the carrack's counterpart. As long as there
was a good breeze she could be manoeuvred, and if
there was a hard breeze it would make it difficult
for the enemy's gunnery. Probus was practically
becalmed, so the submarine could run rings round
her, and the sailing ship could not be worked up to
windward. Of course, on these and similar occasions
troubles seldom come singly ; for when the brigantine
Probus made a stern board her starboard propeller
had fouled the log-line, so this was out of action.
However, Probus resumed her original course, fol-
lowed the convoy, and in spite of the light airs duly
arrived at Morlaix on June 25.

Q-SAILING SHIP ''FkESH HoPE "

Tliis was a 900-toii three-masted schooner which was requisitioned in the last
year of the war. She liad previously been the United States " Edith E.

Cummins. "'

Q-SHip "Record Reign"

This apparently peaceful ketch was one of those armed mystery sailing ships
which came into service during the last vear of the war.

To face p. ISS

MORE SAILTNG-SHIP FIGHTS 189

Although the submarine escaped, Probus had
succeeded in luring him from the convoy, and had
sent him right away. These sailing Q-ships became, in
fact, one of the best types of escort for other sailing
vessels in convoy, and thus allowed armed steam
patrol vessels to be employed elsewhere. Looking in
no way different from the rest of the convoy, but
fitted with concealed wireless and, later, even with
howitzer armament, they had a much better chance
than the armed trawler or destroyer of enticing the
submarine. Apart altogether from these important
considerations, the scheme of carrying freights was a
big financial success, and Probus paid for herself over
and over again. It was nothing unusual for her to
earn over £1,000 a month. Naturally enough, then,
we find other sailing ships being, taken up for this dual
work. In November, 1917, the 900-ton three-masted
fore-and-aft schooner Fresh Hope, lying at Granton,
was requisitioned. She had formerly been the United
States' Edith E. Cummins, and in a fresh breeze could
log her 12 knots. Known also as the Iroquois, she
was fitted out and commissioned by the first week of
April, 1918, and served until the Armistice. Other
sailing vessels were thus commissioned in 1918,
specially selected as being able to carry each at least
one 4-inch and two 12-pounders, and to be fitted with
auxiliary engines. These were the Rentoul, Imogene,
Viola, Cijmric, and Elizabeth. They were actually
armed with a 7*5-inch howitzer, in addition to the
three guns just mentioned. Imogene was a barquen-
tine, and had been carrying china clay fi'om Fowey to
St. Malo. Rentoul was also a barquentine, Viola was
a schooner ; Cymric was a three-masted schooner.

By the end of September there were no fewer than
nineteen decoy ships which had been fitted out in the

190 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

one port of Granton, and nine of these were sailing
ships. It will therefore be of interest to show how
in this month such vessels were being employed in
their double capacity of warship plus freighter. The
barquentine Merops was discharging a cargo at
Runcorn preparatory to loading coal for Cherbourg.
The topsail schooner Dargle was discharging a
cargo at Lerwick, and then loading herrings for
Farnborough. The Fresh Hope was about to leave
Liverpool for Belfast, where she would load with cork
ballast for Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Baron Rose,
another 900-ton schooner, was about to leave
Newcastle with cork ballast for Halifax also. The
barquentine Rentoul was on her way with coal to
Cherbourg, the barquentine Imogene was on her way
with coal for Lerwick. The topsail schooner Viola
(alias Vereker) left Granton with coal for St. Valery-
en-Caux. The iron schooner Cymric was taking coal
from Granton to Cherbourg. Another three-masted
schooner was carrying coal from Granton to St.
Valery-en-Caux. In addition, there were a dozen
steam craft from this same port acting as Q-ships.
In another part of the British Isles our old friend
Helgoland had yet another fight with a submarine.
This was on July 11, 1917, in the neighbourhood of
the Scillies, and this was another occasion when two
ships with sails shelled each other, but unfortunately
it was another of those calm days, and hazy. At the
outset the enemy's shells passed over the Helgoland's
fore-tgallant yard as the latter was just drifting with
the tide. Then the motors were started, and at
500 yards both guns and the Lewis guns gave the
submarine a warm time, so that she was seriously
damaged and had to escape by submerging.

Thus, all round our coasts, in the North Sea, Eng-

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Q-SAILIXG SHIP " ReNTOUL "

This barqnentine was commissioned as a Q-ship in March, litis, was well armed,
but was also employed simultaneously in carrying coal to France.

Q-SAILINli SHIP " PiENTOUL "

The crew of the 4-inch eun.

To face p. 100

MORE SAILING-SHIP FIGHTS 191

lish Channel, Irish Sea, and Atlantic : from as far
north as the Orkneys and Shetlands to as far south as
the Bay of Biscay, and as far west as the coast of
North America, these Q-sailing-ships were doing
their job of work. The fitting out, the manning of
these craft and of their guns, put a great strain on
our manhood, already greatly diminished by the
demands of our Armies abroad and munition makers
at home. Nor could the Navy proper and the
Auxiliary Patrol Force afford to be weakened. On
the contrary, destroyers and light cruisers were being
built and commissioned at a rapid rate : whilst more
minesweepers, more trawlers and drifters, were daily
consuming scores of men. Add to this the fact that
other men as gunners were required in great numbers
— for practically every British merchant ship became
defensively armed — and one can see how important to
our island nation and the overseas Empire is the
existence of peace-time shipping, with all that it
connotes — steamships, liners, tramps, colliers, traw-
lers, drifters, yachts, fishing smacks, it does not
matter. From all these, and from the few full-rigged
ships and sailing coasters, we had to draw our supplies
of personnel, and it still takes longer to train a man
into a sailor than into a military unit.

Never before, not even in Armada days, and prob-
ably ne^ er again, could such a call come from the fleet
in being to the fleet of merchantmen. The sailing ship
has had many centuries of usefulness as a fighting
ship and a cargo carrier, and if she is being gradually
killed by the mechanical ship she is dying hard.
Apparently in neither capacity has she quite finished
her fascinating and illustrious history.

CHAPTER XIV

THE SUMMIT OF Q-SHIP SERVICE

It was on February 17, 1917, that Commander Gordon
Campbell, still in command of Farnboi^ougli, now
named Q 5, again sank a submarine, but in circum-
stances which, hid from publication at the time, sent a
thrill through the British Navy and especially among
those who had the good fortune to be serving in that
area. The scene was again off the south-west Irish
coast, and the enemy at the beginning of the month
had commenced the unrestricted warfare portion of
their submarine campaign. The Germans, as we
have since learned, possessed at this date ninety-five
submarines in addition to eight in the Baltic and
thirty-one in the Mediterranean. The orders to their
submarine captains were very drastic and left no un-
certainty, and one of these commanding officers
informed one of my friends after the war that unless
they were successful in sinking plenty of shipping
they soon were removed from their command.

Every Allied merchant ship was to be attacked
without delay. ' This form of warfare is to force
England to make peace and thereby to decide the
whole war. Energetic action is required, but above all
rapidity of action,' ' Our object is to cut England off
from traffic by sea, and not to achieve occasional
results at far-distant points. As far as possible, there-
fore, stations must be taken up near the English

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THE SUMMIT OF Q-SHIP SERVICE 193

coast, where routes converge and where divergence
becomes impossible.' If ever there was a chance of
attacking by night, this was to be done. When a
ship had been abandoned by her crew the submarine
was to sink her by gunfire, and approach the ship from
aft. Owing to the activity of the British Q-ships,
every ship, even saihng vessels, should be suspected,
and both captain and engineer of merchant ships were
to be taken prisoners.

Of the above numbers of submarines available this
month not less than twenty-five and not more than
forty-four could actually be at work on any given
date, for the reasons given in another chapter. The
first stages of this unrestricted warfare were most
marked, for whereas the number of merchant ships
sunk by submarines in all waters during December
and January had been respectively thirty-six and
thirty-five, in February the total suddenly rose to
eighty-six — these sinkings occurring in the western
approaches, especially off the south coast of Ireland.
On February 14 the sailing ship Eitdora (1,991 tons)
had been sunk 30 miles S.S.W. of the Fastnet, and
three days later the S.S. lolo 40 miles S. by W. of the
Fastnet, so orders from Germany were being carried
out to the letter. The seventeenth of February was
the Saturday before Ash Wednesday, and Captain
Campbell had taken Farnhorough into the locality
just mentioned, the exact position being Lat. 51.34 N.,
Long. 11.23 W. It was a quarter to ten in the fore-
noon and the steamer was steering an easterly course
at 7 knots, when a torpedo was seen approaching.
And then occurred a supreme instance of Q-ship
bravery. In his Order Book Captain Campbell had
laid it down that ' Should the Officer of the Watch
see a torpedo coming, he is to increase or decrease

13

194 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

speed as necessary to ensure it hitting.' This order
was read and signed by all his officers, so that there
could be no misunderstandino-. The intention was
deliberate, premeditated self-immolation for the
greater object of fooling the submarine and then
sinking him. The Q-ship's company had all been
warned that the intention would be thus, and every
man was given an opportunity to leave the ship before
sailing. Not one man left. Therefore to-day, when
a long way off the torpedo was seen approaching, it
could easily have been avoided, but instead, the helm
was put hard aport only at the last minute, and only
so that it should strike the ship elsewhere than in the
engine-room. On came the steel fish and struck the
ship abreast of No. 3 hold, wounding an Engineer
Sub-Lieutenant, R.N.R., causing a terrific explosion,
and making a huge hole in the ship's side.

In the meantime ' Action ' had been sounded and
all hands went to their stations, the ship being
abandoned by every available man with the exception
of those required on board. Thus two lifeboats and
one dinghy full of men were sent to row about, and
the fourth boat was partially lowered. Captain Camp-
bell was lying concealed at one end of the bridge,
watching and waiting in his great isolation. Up
through the voice-pipe came the chief engineer's
report that the engine-room was filling: back came
the captain's orders that he was to hang on as long as
possible and then hide. This was done. In the
meantime Farnhorougli s captain saw the submarine
appear on the starboard quarter a couple of hundred
yards away, submerged, but cautiously making a
thorough scrutiny of the ship through his periscope.
Then the German — U 83 was her name — came past
the ship on the starboard side only 13 yards away and

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THE SUMMIT OF Q-SHIP SERVICE 195

about 5 yards from the boats. She was so close, in
fact, that Captain Campbell, looking down, could see
the whole shape of the submarine below the water
quite distinctly.

Here was the big crisis. Was this the psycho-
logical moment ? Was this the right time to make
the final gamble ? For Captain Campbell the
temptation to open fire was almost unbearable, yet
the opportunity was not yet : he must wait a little
longer and live minutes which were like days. The
submarine passed along, then close round Farn-
boro2igh's bows, finally breaking surface about 300
yards on the port bow. It was now five minutes
past ten and U 83 motoring along the surface came
past the port side, continuing the scrutiny with
less caution born of satisfaction. The concealed
figure on FarnborougJis bridge was waiting only
until all his guns would bear, and as soon as the
enemy thus bore came the great onslaught. It was
point-blank range, and the 6-pounder opened the
battle, whose first shot hit the conning-tower and
beheaded the German captain.

The surprise had been instant and effective, for
the submarine never recovered from the shock, but
remained on the surface whilst FainiborougJis guns
shattered the hull to pieces, the conning-tower being
continually hit, and some of the shells going clean
through. Over forty rounds had thus been fired, to
say nothing of the Maxim gun. U 83 was beaten,
finished, smashed : and she finally sank with her
conning-tower open and her crew pouring out. About
eight of her crew were seen in the water, and one of
Fdrnborouglis lifeboats went to their assistance and
was in time to pick up one officer and one man, and
then rowed back to the ship through sea thick with

196 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

oil and blood and bubbles. U 83 was satisfactorily
disposed of, but what about the decoy ship herself?
It was now time to inspect her, and she was clearly in
a stricken state. The engine-room and boiler-rooms
and both Nos. 3 and 4 after holds were all filling

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Fig. 13. — ' Farnborough's ' Farewell.

When Q 5 {Fariiborough) had succeeded in sinking U 83, but was herself in a
sinking condition and apparently doomed, Captain Campbell despatched
the above wireless signal to Vice-Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, Commander-in-
Chief, Queenstown. It was one of the most pathetic and dramatic messages
which ever flashed out of the Atlantic, but happily Q 5 was salved.

rapidly, and she was sinking by the stern : the end
could not be far away. Captain Campbell therefore
sent a wireless signal for assistance and placed nearly
all his hands in the boats, keeping only a few men on

Q-SHip '• Farnborough "

Brought safely into Berehaven after her famous light and beached in
Mill Cove, with a heavy list.

S.S. " LODORER ■'■

Having served magnificently as a warship under the names of " Farnboroucrh "'
and Q-o. and having been salved, this ship is here seen ready to be returned to

her owners.

To face p. 196

THE SUMMIT OF Q-SHIP SERVICE 197

board, and destroying all confidential books and
charts. His signal was picked up, and before noon a
British destroyer arrived, and as by this time Farn-
horougk was in a critical condition most of the crew
were transferred to her.* Presently H.M. sloop Butte?'-
cup steamed up, and as there seemed a chance of saving
the ship Captain Campbell with twelve officers and
men then went back on board his ship. She seemed
now to have settled to a definite position, and the
water, though rising, was gaining but slowly.

At length Butteixup got her in tow, but there is
nothing so hard to steer as a sinking ship, and the
tow parted. At 5 p.m. the sloop again got her in
tow, but it was a disappointing business with the
water steadily gaining below and the Atlantic swell
breaking over the after deck, and thus the ships went
on through the night. At 2 a.m. on the Sunday
Farnhorough suddenly took an alarming list and the
water gained rapidly, so the crew had to be ordered
into the boats once again. The sloop Laburnum^
which had also arrived, was ordered to close her an
hour and a half later, but just as Captain Campbell
was walking aft off went one of the depth charges
with such an explosion that Buttei'cup, thinking it
was a submarine's torpedo, slipped her tow. After
remaining aboard Laburmmi until daylight, Captain
Campbell went back to his ship, and then Laburnum
got her in tow. A course had been set for Bantry
Bay, and as she approached she was an amazing spec-
tacle, listing over to the extent of twenty degrees and
her stern nearly 8 feet under water. However, the

* Twelve officers and men were selected from a host of volunteers
to try and get the ship in tow. These were placed in a motor-
boat, whilst the Captain boarded the escort to arrange for towage
if possible.

198 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

armed trawler Lwieda and the tug Flying Sportsman
had been sent out to her, and by their assistance she
was brought up the ijord and beached at Mill Cove,
Berehaven, by half-past nine that Sunday night.
Next morning, and for long after, this very ordinary-
looking steamer lay among a number of other wounded
ships, a strange and impressive sight. Farnboi'OugJi
had fought both submarine and adversity, and had won
both times : still, had it not been for sound seaman-
ship and her holds being packed with timber she
would never have been saved.

There was much work to be done and there were
too few salvage experts and men to cope with the
results of the submarines' attacks : so for the present
Farnborough had to reman idle. Months later she
was repaired temporarily, refloated, taken away from
Berehaven and properly reconditioned, but she had
ended her days as a warship. She has now gone back
to the Merchant Service as a cargo carrier, and if you
ever go aboard her you will find a suitable inscription
commemorating her truly wonderful career. As for
Commander Campbell, as soon as he had got his ship
safely into Berehaven he was summoned to see his
Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly.
After that he was received by the King, who con-
ferred on him the highest of all awards for heroes. No
details appeared in the Press ; only this announcement
from the London Gazette :

' The King has been graciously pleased to approve |
of the grant of the Victoria Cross to Commander
Gordon Campbell, D.S.O., R.N., in recognition of
his conspicuous gallantry, consummate coolness and
skill in command of one of His Majesty's ships in
action.'

Press and public were greatly puzzled, but secrecy

I I

Q-sHiP "Pargust"
One of Captain Gordon Campbell's famous commands.

Q-SHip '-Sarah .Tones"

This craft did not come into the service until about three months Ijefore the
end of the war. Her alias was •' Margaret Murray. "

To face p. 198

THE SUMMIT OF Q-SHIP SERVICE 199

was at this time essential. ' This,' commented a
well-known London daily, ' is probably the first time
since the institution of the V.C. that the bestowal of
this coveted honour has been announced without
details of the deed for which it was awarded.' The
popular press named him 'the Mystery V.C.,' and
the usual crop of rumours and fantastic stories went
round. And while these were being told the gallant
commander was busy fitting out another Q-ship in
which to go forth and make his greatest of all
achievements.

This ship was the S.S. Vittoria, a collier of 2,817
gross tons. She was selected whilst lying at Cardiff,
whence she was sent to Devonport to be fitted out
as a decoy. Commander Campbell superintended
her alteration, and she began her special service on
March 28, 1917. She was armed with one 4-inch,
four 12-pounders, two Maxim guns, and a couple of
14-inch torpedo tubes. She was a slow creature,
7J knots being her speed, but she looked the part she
was intended to play. When Commander Campbell
took over the command he was accompanied by his
gallant crew from Farnbor^ough. She had been
fitted with wireless, and down in her holds the useful
timber had been stowed. On leaving Devonport she
changed her name to Pargiist, but she was variously
known also as the Snail, Friswell, and Pangloss at
later dates.

She again came under the orders of Sir Lewis
Bayly at Queenstown, and then, being in all respects
ready to fight another submarine, Par gust went
cruising. She had not long to wait, and on June 7
we find her out in the Atlantic again, not very far
from the scene of her last encounter. The month of
April had been a terrible one for British shipping ;

200 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

no fewer than 155 of our merchant craft had been
sunk by submarines, representing a loss of over half
a million of tonnage. In May these figures had
dropped slightly, but in June they were up again,
though in no month of the war did our losses ever
reach the peak of April again. Nor was it only
British ships that so suffered, and I recollect the
U.S.S. Cushing two days previously bringing into Ban-
try Bay thirteen survivors, including three wounded,
from an Italian barque. At this time, too, the
enemy submarines were laying a number of dangerous
minefields off this part of the world, and as one
patrolled along the south-west Irish coast pieces of
wreckage, a meat-safe or a seaman's chest, would be
seen floating from some victimized steamer.

On the morning, then, of the seventh, picture
Pargust in Lat. 51.50 N., Long. 11.50 W., jogging
along at her slow speed. At that time there was
scarcely a steamer that was not armed with some
sort of a gun ; therefore, if a Q-ship did not display
one aft, she would have looked suspicious. Pargust
kept up appearances by having a dummy gun mounted
aft with a man in uniform standing by. I well re-
member that day. There was a nasty sea running,
and the atmosphere varied from the typical Irish
damp mist to heavy rain. At 8 a.m. out of this
thickness Pargust descried a torpedo, apparently
fired at close range, racing towards her starboard
beam. When about 100 yards off it jumped out of
the water and struck the engine-room near the water-
line, making a large tear in the ship's side, filling the
boiler-room, engine-room, and No. 5 hold, and blow-
ing the starboard lifeboat into the air.

Captain Campbell then gave the order to abandon
ship, and the panic party went away in three boats,

> ^

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03 ?

O

THE SUMMIT OF Q-SHIP SERVICE 201

and just as the last boat was pushing off a periscope
was sighted 400 yards on the port side forward of the
beam. It then turned and made for the ship, and
submerged when close to the lifeboat's stern, then
came on the starboard quarter, turned towards
the ship and, when 50 yards away, partially broke
surface, heading on a course parallel, but opposite, to

s/M sank a
I

Position cf other boats

/ \

Periscope •-
shotved

Fig. 14.

^ P^r>

y

s» ^ — Position of-^U on 'Open Fire '

-Diagram to Illustrate Approximate Movements of
'Pargust' and UC 29 on June 7, 1917.

that oi Pargust, the lifeboat meanwhile pulling away
round the steamer's stern. The submarine followed,
and a man was seen on the conning-tower shouting
directions. The lifeboat then rowed towards the
ship, and this apparently annoyed the Hun, who
now began semaphoring the boats ; but at 8.36 a.m.
the submarine was only 50 yards off, and was bearing
one point before the beam, so all Pargusfs guns were
able to bear nicely. Fire was therefore opened, the

202 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

first shot from the 4-inch gun hitting the base of the
conning -tower and removing the two periscopes.
Nearly forty more shells followed, most of them
being hits in the conning-tower, so that the submarine
quickly listed to port, and several men came out of
the hatch abaft the conning-tower. She was already
obviously in a bad way, with her heavy list and her
stern almost submerged, and oil squirting from her
sides.

The Germans now came on deck, held up their
hands, and waved ; so Captain Campbell ordered
' Cease Fire.' Then a typically unsportsmanlike
trick was played, for as soon as Pargust stopped firing
the enemy began to make off at a fair speed. So
there was nothing for it but to resume shelling her,
and this was kept up until 8.40 a.m., when an
explosion occurred in the forward part of the sub-
marine. She sank for the last time, falling over on
her side, and 3 feet of her sharp bow end up in the air,
300 yards off, was the last that was ever seen of her.
So perished UC 29, and thus one inore submarine was
added to the score of this gallant captain and crew.
One officer (a sub-lieutenant of Reserve) and an
engine-room petty officer were picked up. The
former had come on to the submarine's deck with a
couple of men to fire the 2 2 -pounder, but owing to
the heavy sea knocked up by the fresh southerly wind
they had been all washed overboard before reaching
the gun.

The captain of UC 29 had been killed by Pargusfs
fire. This class of submarine carried besides her
22-pounder and machine-gun eighteen mines and
three torpedoes. She had left Brunsbiittel on May 25,
calling at Heligoland, and the routine was usually
first to lay the mines and then operate, sinking ships

Bridge of Q-ship " Dunraven "

Captain Gordon Campbell, V.C, D.S.O., R.N.. inspecting the damage by the
submai'ine's shells to his ship.

To face p. 202

THE SUMMIT OF Q-SHIP SERVICE 208

with gun or torpedo. As to her mines, it is quite
possible that she laid the three mines I recollect
sinking on June 12 in the approach to Valentia
Harbour, Dingle Bay, and she may have laid three
others off Brow Head, one of which 1 remember on
June 4, for it was customary for these craft to lay
their ' eggs ' in threes. With regard to her three
torpedoes we know that one had penetrated Pargast,
another had sunk a sailing ship — probably the Italian
barque already mentioned — and the third had been
fired at a destroyer, but passed underneath.

As to Pargust, she fortunately did not sink, thanks
to her cargo of timber. At 12.30 p.m. another of
Admiral Bayly's alert sloops, who always seemed to
be at hand when wanted, arrived. This was H.M.S.
Crocus, who took Pnrgust in tow. The sloop Zinnia
and the United States destroyer Gushing sxvwedi also,
and escorted her to Queenstown, which she reached
next afternoon. The prisoners had been already
transferred to Zinnia, and in Pargust the only casual-
ties had been one stoker petty officer killed and the
engineer sub-lieutenant wounded. For Pargusfs
splendid victory further honours were awarded.
Captain Campbell, already the possessor of the V.C.
and D.S.O., now received a bar to his D.S.O. To
I^ieutenant R. N. Stuart, D.S.O. , R.N.R., was given
the V.C, and Seaman VV. Wilhams, R.N.R., also
received this highest of all decorations. These two,
one officer and one man, were selected by ballot to
receive this distinction, but every officer and every
man had earned it.

Before Pargust could be ready for sea again much
would have to be done to her at Devonport, so
Captain Campbell proceeded to look for a new ship,
and this was found in the collier Dunraven. She

204 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

was fitted out at Devonport under his supervision,
just like her predecessor, and her crew turned over
en bloc from Pargust. Slie was commissioned on
July 28, and within a fortnight Captain Campbell,
now already promoted to post- captain at an age
which must certainly be a record, was engaged in the
most heroic Q-ship fight of all the long series of duels
only a few days after leaving Devonport.

Just before eleven on the forenoon of August 8
Dunraven was in the Bay of Biscay, about 130 miles
west of Ushant, doing her 8 knots and disguised
as a defensively armed British merchantman, for
which reason she had a small gun aft. In order to
conform further with merchant-ship practice of this
time, she was keeping a zigzag course. On the horizon
appeared a submarine, about two points forward of
Jbunravens starboard beam. The German was
waiting, you see, in a likely position for catching
homeward-bound steamers making for the western
British ports, and on sighting this ' tramp ' he must
have felt pretty sure she was bringing home a cargo
of commodities useful for winning the war. Pursuing
the more cautious tactics of the time, the enemy,
having apparently ascertained the ' tramp's ' speed
and mean course, submerged, but at 11,43 she broke
surface 5,000 yards off the starboard quarter and
opened fire. In order to maintain the bluff. Captain
Campbell replied with his defensive gun, made as
much smoke as possible, reduced to 7 knots, and
made an occasional zigzag in order to give the enemy
a chance of closing. Diuir avert was now steaming
head to sea, and the enemy's shots were falling over,
but after about half an hour of this the submarine
ceased firing, came on at full speed, and a quarter of
an hour later turned broadside on, and reopened fire.

After the Battlk

Forebridge of Q-ship " Dunraven '" and captain's cabin as the result
of the siibmaiiue's shells.

To face p. 204

THE SUMMIT OF Q-SHIP SERVICE 205

In the meantime the decoy was intentionally firing
short, and sent wireless signals en clair so that the
enemy could still further be deceived. Such messages
as ' Submarine chasing and shelling me,' ' Submarine
overtaking me, help, come quickly . . . am aban-
doning ship,' were flashed forth just as were sent
almost daily by stricken ships in those strenuous days.
Dunravens next bluff was to pretend his engines had
been hit ; so Captain Campbell stopped his ship,
which now made a cloud of steam. The next step
was to ' abandon ship,' and the ' tramp ' had enough
way on to allow of her being turned broadside on
and let the enemy see that the vessel was being
abandoned. Then, to simulate real panic, one of
the boats was let go by the foremost fall, an incident
that somehow seems to happen in every disaster to
steamers. Thus, so far, everything had been carried
out just as a submarine would have expected a genuine
' tramp ' to behave. Not a thing had been omitted
which ought to have been seen by the enemy, who
had already closed and continued his shelling. From
now ensued a most trying time. To receive punish-
ment with serene stoicism, to be hit and not reply, is
the supreme test ; but these officers and men were no
novices in the Q-ship art, and none had had greater
or more bitter experience. However, not all the
tactics and devices could prevent the enemy's shells
hitting if the German insisted, and this had to be
endured in order that at length the submarine might
be tempted inside the desired range and bearing.

Thus it happened that one shell penetrated Dun-
leaven's poop, exploding a depth charge and blowing
Lieutenant C. G. Bonner, D.S.C., R.N.R., out of his
control position. This was rather bad luck, and two
more shells followed, the poop became on fire, dense

206 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

clouds of black smoke issued forth, and the situation
was perilous ; for in the poop were the magazine and
depth charges, and it was obvious that as the fire
increased an explosion of some magnitude must soon
occur. But the main consideration was to sink the
submarine, and it mattered little if the Q-ship were
lost ; so Captain Campbell decided to wait until the
submarine got in a suitable position. It was exactly
two hours to the minute since the submarine had
been first sighted when, just as he was passing close
to Dunraveii s stern, a terrific explosion took place
in the poop, caused probably by a couple of depth
charges and some cordite. The result was that the
4-incli gun and the whole of its crew were blown up
into the air, the gun vaulting the bridge and alighting
on the well deck forward, while the crew came down
in various places, one man falling into the water, and
4-inch projectiles being blown about the ship in the
most unpleasant manner.

That this explosion should have happened at this
moment was a misfortune of the greatest magnitude,
for it spoilt the whole tactics. Captain Campbell was
watching the enemy closely, and the latter was coming
on so nicely that he had only to proceed a little fur-
ther and Dunravens guns would have been bearing
at a range of not more than 400 yards. As it was,
the explosion gave the whole game away, for firstly it
frightened the submarine so that he dived, secondly
it set going the ' open fire ' buzzers at the guns.
Thus the time had come to attack. The only gun in
the ship that would bear was the one on the after
bridge, and this began to bark just as the White
Ensign was hoisted. One shot was thought to have
succeeded in hitting the conning- tower just as the
enemy was submerging, but if he was damaged it

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THE SUMMIT OF Q-SHIP SERVICE 207

was not seriously, and Captain Campbell realized that
the next thing to expect was a torpedo. He therefore
ordered the doctor to remove all the wounded, and
hoses were turned on to the poop, which was now one
mass of flames, the deck being red-hot. So gallant
had been this well-disciplined crew that even when it
was so hot tliat they had to lift the boxes of cordite
from off the deck the men still had remained at their
posts."

The position now was this : a ship seriously on fire,
the magazine still intact but likely to explode before
long with terrible effects, a torpedo attack imminent,
and the White Ensign showing that this was a ' trap-
ship ' after all. The submarine would certainly fight

* Captain Campbell has been good enough to furnish me with
the following details of this heroic episode :

' Lieutenant Bonner, having been blown out of his control by the
first explosion, crawled into the gun -hatch with the crew. They
there remained at their posts with a fire raging in the poop below
and the deck getting red-hot. One man tore up his shirt to give
pieces to the gun's crew to stop the fumes getting into their
throats, others lifted the boxes of cordite off the deck to keep it
from exploding, and all the time they knew that they must be
blown up, as the secondary supply and magazine were immediately
below. They told me afterwards that communication with the
bridge was cut off, and although they knew they would be blown
up, they also knew they would spoil the show if they moved, so
they remained until actually blown up with their gun. Then,
when as wounded men they were ordered to remain quiet in
various places during the second action, they had to lie there un-
attended and bleeding, with explosions continually going on aboard
and splinters from the shell-fire penetrating their quarters. Lieu-
tenant Bonner, himself wounded, did what he could for two who were
with him in the wardroom. When I visited them after the action,
they thought little of their wounds, but only expressed their
disgust that the enemy had not been sunk. Surely such bravery
is hard to equal. The strain for the men who remained on board
after the ship had been torpedoed, poop set on fire, cordite and
shells exploding, and then the enemy shell-fire, can easily be
imagined.'

208 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

now like the expert duellist, and it would be a fight
to the finish, undoubtedly. Realizing all this, and
full well knowing what was inevitable, Captain Camp-
bell made a decision which could have been made
only by a man of consummate moral courage. To a
man-of-war who had answered his call for assistance

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Fig. 15.— Ths Great Decision.

Captain Campbell's famous wireless signal refusing assistance when the Q-ship
Dunraven was already crippled and about to be attacked again.

when the explosion occurred he now sent a wireless
signal requesting him to keep away, as he was already
preparing for the next phase, still concentrating as he
was on sinking the submarine.*

* See illustration above.

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THE SUMMIT OF Q-SHIP SERVICE 209

It was now twenty minutes since that big explosion,
and the expected torpedo arrived, striking Duiiraven
abaft the engine-room. The enemy was aware of
two facts : he had seen the first ' abandon ship ' party
and this he now knew was mere bluff", and that there
were others still remaining on board. In order, there-
fore, to deceive the German, Captain Campbell now
sent away some more of his crew in boats and a raft.
It would then look as if the last man had left the
ship. From 1.40 to 2.30 p.m. followed a period of
the utmost suspense, during which the periscope
could be seen circling around scrutinizing the ship to
make quite sure, whilst the fire on the poop was
still burning fiercely, and boxes of cordite and 4-inch
shells were going off every few minutes. To control
yourself and your men under these circumstances and
to continue thinking coolly of what the next move
shall be, this, surely, is a very wonderful achievement :
more than this could be asked of no captain.

At half-past tw^o the submarine came to the surface
directly astern (where Dunraveris guns would not
bear) and resumed shelling the steamer at short range,
and used her Maxim gun on the men in the boats.
This went on for twenty minutes, and then she dived
once more. Captain Campbell next decided to use
his torpedoes, so five minutes later one was fired
which passed just ahead of the submarine's periscope
as the enemy was motoring 150 yards off on the port
side ; and seven minutes afterwards Dunraven fired a
second torpedo which passed just astern of the peri-
scope. The enemy had failed to see the first torpedo,
but evidently he noticed the second. It was obvious
that by now it was useless to continue the contest
any further, for the submarine would go on torpedo-
ing and shelling Dunraven until she sank : so Captain

14

22nd August » 1917.

It Is with very great pleasure that I
convey to you, by the directions of the War
Cabinet, an expression ot their high appreciation
of the gallantry, skill, and devotion to duty,
which have heen displayed througli many months of
arduous service by yourself and the officers and
men of His Majesty's ship under your command.

In conveying to you this message of the
War Cabinet, which expresses the hi^i esteem with
which the conduct of your officers and men Is
regarded by His Majesty's Government, I wish to
add on behalf of the Board of Admiralty, that they
warmly endorse this commendation.

Will you please convey this message to
all ranks and ratings under your command?

Fig. 16. — Letter of Appreciation from ;the First Lord of the
Admiralty to Captain Gordon Campbell after the Historic
Actio fought by Q-Ship ' Dunraven.'

THE SUMMIT OF Q SHIP SERVICE 211

Campbell signalled for urgent assistance," and almost
immediately the U.S.S. No?iia arrived and fired at a
periscope seen a few hundred yards astern of Dun-
raven. Then came the two British destroyers Attack
and Christopher, lyunraven then recalled her boats
and the fire was extinguished, but it was found that
the poop had been completely gutted and that all
depth charges and ammunition had been exploded.
From Noma and Christopher doctors came over and
assisted in tending the wounded, a couple of the most
dangerously injured being taken on board Noma to
be operated on and then landed at Brest.

At G.45 p.m. Christopher began towing Dmiraven,
but this was no easy matter, for there was a nasty
sea running, the damaged ship would not steer ; her
stern went down, the sea broke over it and worked
its way forward. In this way the night passed, and
at 10.15 the next morning Christopher was able to
report that she was now only 60 miles west of Ushant
and bringing Diuiraven towards Plymouth at 4- knots.
By six that evening the ship was in so bad a condition
that she might sink any moment, so Captain Camp-
bell transferred sixty of his crew to the trawler Foss.
About 9 p.m. two tugs arrived, took over the towing,
and carried on during the night until 1.30 a.m. of
August 10. It was time then for the last handful of
men to abandon her in all true earnestness, so the
Christopher came alongside, in spite of the heavy sea
running, and the last man was taken off. It was
only just in time, for almost immediately she capsized,
and was finally sunk by Christopher dropping a depth
charge and shelling her as a dangerous derelict soon

* In the meantime he arranged for a further ' abandon ship '
evolution, having only one gun's crew on board.

212 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

after 3 a.m. Thus the Hfe of Dunraven as a man-of-
war had been both l)rief and distinguished.

As to the officers and men, it is difficult to imagine
greater and more persistent bravery under such
adverse circumstances, and the King made the
following awards: Captain Gordon Campbell, V.C.,
D.S.O., received a second bar to his D.S.O. ; Lieu-
tenant C. G. Bonner, D.S.C., R.N.R., received a
V.C., as also did Petty Officer E. Pitcher. To
Assistant-Paymaster R. A. Nunn, D.S.C., R.N.R.,
was awarded a D.S.O. Three other officers received
a D.S.C., whilst Lieutenant P. R. Hereford, D.S.O.,
D.S.C., and two engineer officers, all received a bar
to their D.S.C.

Such is the story of Captain Campbell's last and
greatest Q-ship fight, for after this he was appointed
to command a light cruiser at Queenstown. In these
duels w^e reach the high-water mark of sea gallantry,
and the incidents themselves are so impressive that
no further words are necessary. Let us leave it at
that.

CHAPTER XV

LIFE ON BOARD A Q-SHIP

In history it is frequently the case that what seems
to contemporaries merely ordinary and commonplace
is to posterity of the utmost value and interest. How
little, for example, do we know of the life and routine
in the various stages and development of the sailing
ship ! In a volume entitled ' Ships and Ways of
Other Days,' published before the war, I endeavoured
to collect and present the everyday existence at sea
in bygone years. Some day, in the centuries to
come, it may be that the historical student will
require to know something of the organization and
mode of life on board one of the Q-steamships, and
because it is just one of those matters, which at the
time seemed so obvious, I have now thought it
advisable here to set down a rough outline. As time
goes on the persons of the drama die, logs and
diaries and correspondence fall into unsympathetic
hands and become destroyed ; therefore, whilst it is
yet not too late, let us provide for posterity some
facts on which they can base their imagination of
Q-ship life.

Elsewhere in the pages of this book the reader
will find it possible to gather some idea of the types,
sizes, and appearances of the ships employed. The
following details are chiefly those of one of the most
distinguished Q-ships, the famous Peusliurst, and as

213

214 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

such they have especial interest as showing the
organization of a tiny Uttle tramp into a vaHant and
successful man-of-war that sank several powerful
enemy submarines ; and it is through the courtesy of
her gallant late commanding officer, Captain F. H.
Grenfell, D.S.O., R.N., that I am able to present
these facts.

Penshurst was a three-masted, single-funnelled,
single-screw steamer, owned by a London firm. She
had been fitted out as a decoy at the end of 1915 by
Admiral Colville at Longhope. Her length between
perpendiculars was 225 feet, length over all 232 feet,
beam 35 feet 2 inches, draught 14 feet 6 inches,
depth of hold 13 feet 7 inches. Her tonnage was
1,191 gross, 740 registered, displacement 2,035 tons.
Fitted with four bulkheads, the ship had the maximum
amount of hold, the engines being placed right aft.
The crew were berthed in the forecastle, the engineers'
mess and cabins being aft, whilst the captain's and
oflScers' mess and cabins were adjacent to the bridge
just forward of midships. The engine-room pressure
was 180 pounds, and the maximum speed, with every-
thing working well and a clean bottom, was 10 knots.
Her armament consisted of five guns. A 12-pounder
(18 cwt.) was placed on the after hatch, but disguised
in the most ingenious manner by a ship's boat, which
had been purposely sawn through so that the detached
sections could immediately be removed, allowing the
gun to come into action. Originally there were
mounted a 3-pounder and 6 -pounder on each side of
the lower bridge deck. These were hidden behind
wooden screens such as are often found built round
the rails in this kind of ship. These screens were
specially hinged so that on going into action they
immediately fell down and revealed the guns. Thus

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LIFE ON BOARD A Q-SHIP 215

it was possible always to offer a broadside of three
guns. In the spring of 1916 Penshnrst was trans-
ferred from Longhope to Milford and Queenstown,
and Admiral Bayly had tlie arrangement of guns
altered so that the .'j-pounders were now concealed
in a gunhouse made out of the engineers' mess and
cabins, the intention being to enable both these guns
to fire right aft. The 6-pounders were then shifted
forward into the positions previously occupied by the
3-pounders on the lower bridge deck. How success-
ful this arrangement was in action the reader is able
to see for himself in the accounts of Penshurst' s
engagements with submarines. The ship was also
supplied with depth charges, rockets, and Verey's
lights.

The crew consisted of Captain Grenfell and three
temporary R.N.R. officers, an R.N.R. assistant-pay-
master, thirteen Royal Navy gunnery ratings, eight
R.N.R. seamen, a couple of stewards, two cooks, a
shipwright, carpenter's crew, an R.N.R. chief engine-
room artificer, an engine-room artificer, and R.N.R.
stokers, bringing the company up to forty-five.

In arranging action stations in a Q-ship the diffi-
culty was that internally the vessel had to be organized
as a warship, while externally she must necessarily
keep up the character of a merchantman. In Pens-
kurst Captain Grenfell had arranged for the following
signals to be rung from the bridge on the alarm gong.
One long ring meant that a submarine was in sight
and that the crew were to stand by at their respective
stations ; if followed by a short ring it denoted the
enemy was on the starboard side ; if two short rings
the submarine was on the port side. Two long rings
indicated that the crew were to go to panic stations ;
three long rings meant that they were to go to action

216 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

stations without ' panic' ' Open fire ' was ordered
by a succession of short rings and whistles.

With regard to the above, in the case of action
stations the look-out men on the bridge proceeded to
their gun at the stand-by signal, keeping out of sight,
while the crews who were below, off watch, went also
to their guns, moving by the opposite side of the
ship. In order to simulate the real mercantile crew,
the men under the foc's'le now came out and showed
themselves on the fore well deck. If ' panic ' was to
be feigned, all the crew of the gun concealed by the
collapsible boat were to hide, the signalman stood by
to hoist the White Ensign at the signal to open fire,
and the boat party ran aft, turned out the boats,
lowered them, and ' abandoned ' ship, pulling away
on the opposite bow. The signal for standing-by
to release the depth charge was when the captain
dropped a red flag, and all guns' crews were to look
out to fire on the enemy if the depth charge brought
the U-boat to the surface.

Special arrangements had been made in the event
of casualties. Thus, if the captain were laid out a
certain officer was to carry on and take over com-
mand. Similar arrangements were made in the event
of all officers on the bridge becoming casualties, an
eventuality that was far from improbable. In fact.
Captain Grenfell gave orders that if a shell burst on
or near the bridge a certain officer was to be informed
in any case ; and if the latter did not receive word of
this explosion he was to assume that everyone on the
bridge was a casualty and he was to be ready to open
fire at the right time. One of the possibilities in the
preliminary stages of these attacks was always that
owing to the hitting by the enemy's shells, or, more
likely still, by the explosion of his torpedo against

LIFE ON BOARD A Q SHIP 217

the side of the ship, some portion of the screens or
dummy deckhouses might have been damaged, and
thus the guns be revealed to the enemy. So, while
Penshursfs captain was busily engaged watching the
movements of the submarine, the information as to
this unfortunate fact might have been made known.
It was therefore a standing rule that the bridge was
to be informed by voice-pipe of such occurrences.
Damage received in the engine-room was reported up
the pipe to the bridge. Conversely there were placed
three men at the voice-pipes — one on the bridge, one
in the gunhouse aft, and one at the 12-pounder —
whose duty it was to pass along the messages, the
first-mentioned passing down the varying bearing and
range of the submarine and the state of affairs on the
bridge, and when no orders were necessary he was to
keep passing along the comforting remark ' All right.'
By this means the hidden officers and guns' crews
were kept informed of the position of affairs and able
to have the guns instantly ready to fire at the very
moment the screens were let down. Obviously
victory and the very lives of every man in the ship
could be secured only if the vessel came into action
smartly and effectively without accident or bungling.
Sometimes victory was conditional only on being
torpedoed, so that the enemy might believe he had got
the steamer in a sinking condition and the vessel was
apparently genuinely abandoned. Inasmuch as the
submarine on returning home had to afford some sort
of evidence, the U-boat captain would approach the
ship and endeavour to read her name. It was then
that the Q-ship's opportunity presented itself, and the
guns poured shells into the German. Special drills
were therefore made in case Penshurst should be hit
by torpedo, and in this eventuality the boat ' panic

218 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

party ' was to lower away and at once start rowing off
from the ship, whilst the remainder hid themselves at
their respective stations. As for the engineers, their
duty was to stop the engines at once, but to try to
keep the dynamo ruiming as long as possible so that
wireless signals could still be sent out. The engine-
room staff were to remain below as long as conditions
would allow, but if the water rose so that these were
compelled to come up, their orders were to crawl out
on to the deck on the disengaged side and there lie
down lest the enemy should see them. As these
Q-ships usually carried depth charges and the latter
exploded under certain conditions of pressure from
the sea, it was one of the first duties on being
torpedoed that these should be secured.

Now, supposing the Q-ship were actually sunk and
the whole crew were compelled i^eally to abandon
ship, what then ? The submarine would certainly
come alongside the boats and make inquiries. She
would want to know, for instance, the name of the
ship, owners, captain, cargo, where from, where
bound. That was certain. She would also, most
probably, insist on taking the captain prisoner, if the
incident occurred in the last eighteen months of the
war. All these officers and men would, of course, be
wearing not smart naval uniform, but be attired in
the manner fitting the yersonnel of an old tramp.
The captain would be wearing a peaked cap, with the
house-flag of his Company suitably intertwined in
the cap badge, while the men would be attired in
guernseys, old suits, and mufflers, with a dirty old
cloth cap. Now, if the U-boat skipper was a live
man and really knew his work he would, of course,
become suspicious on seeing so many hands from one
sunken tramp. ' This,' he would remark, ' is no

LIFE ON BOARD A Q-SHIP 219

merchant ship, but a proper trap,' and would proceed
to cross-examine the boats' crews. It was therefore
the daily duty of Q-ship men to learn a suitable lie
which would adequately deceive the German. Here
is the information which Penshur.st was, at a certain
period of her Q-ship career, ready to hand out to any
inquisitive Hun if the latter had sunk the ship.

In answer to questions the crew would reply :
'This is the S.S. Perishurst, owned by the Power
Steam Ship Company of London. Her master was
Evan Davies, but he has gone down with the ship,
poor man. Cargo ? She was carrying coal, but she
was not an Admiralty collier.' Then the enemy
would ask where from and to. If it happened that
Penshurst was in a likely locality the reply would be :
' From Cardiff'; otherwise the name of a well distant
coal port, such as Newcastle or Liverpool, was decided
upon. For instance, if PensJiurst were sunk in the
neighbourhood of Portland Bill whilst heading west
it would be no good to pretend you were from the
Mersey or Bristol Channel. When the German com-
mented on the singularly large number of the crew,
he would get the reply : ' Yes, these aren't all our
own chaps. We picked up some blokes two days
ago from a torpedoed ship.' Then in answer to
further questions one of the survivors from the latter
would back up the lie with the statement that they
were the starboard watch of the S.S. Carroii, owned
by the Carron Company, 2,350 tons, bound with a
cargo of coal from Barry (or Sunderland) to a French
port. In this case Captain Grenfell would pretend to
be the master of the Cam-on, and of PensJiursfs four
officers one would pretend he was the first mate of
the Cmn-on, another the first mate of the colher
Penshurst, another the Penslmrsfs second mate,

220 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

whilst the assistant-paymaster, not being a navigator,
passed as chief steward. Thus, every Httle detail
was thought out for every possible contretemps. To
surprise the enemy and yet not to let him surprise
you was the aim.

If, by a piece of bad luck, your identity as a Q-ship
had been revealed— and this did occur — so that the
enemy got away before you had time to sink him,
there was nothing for it but to get the other side of
the horizon and alter the appearance of the ship. To
the landsman this may seem rather an impossible
proposition. I admit at once that in the case of the
Q-sailing-ships this was rather a tall order, for the
plain reason that topsail schooners and brigantines in
these modern days of maritime enterprise are com-
paratively few in number. But the greatest part of
our sea-borne trade is carried on in small steamers of
more or less standardized type or types. Vessels
of the type such as Penshurst and Suffolk Coast are
to be seen almost everywhere in our narrow seas :
except for the markings on their funnels they are as
much like each other as possible. In a fleet of such
craft it would be about as easy for a German to tell
one from another as in a Tokio crowd it would be for
an Englishman to tell one Japanese from another.
The points which distinguish these craft the one from
the other are of minor consideration, such as the
colour of the hull, the colour of the funnel, the device
on the funnel, the number of masts, the topmast,
derricks, cross-trees, and so on. Thus, in the case of
Penshurst there were any amount of disguises which
in a few hours would render her a different ship. For
instance, by painting her funnel black, with red flag
and white letters thereon, she might easily be taken
for one of the Carron Company's steamers, such as

I

i,..u i.:^>A..,^^..-.^..^£^?!^..-.^^..: ■•-^^-4

Q-SHip "Barranca"

In one form of disguise. Hull painted a light colour, black boot-top to funnel.

funnel painted a light colour, alley ways open. She is here seen in her original

colour as a West Indian fruit-carrier.

Q-sHip "Barranca"

Appearance altered by painting hull lilack and funnel black with white band.

She is here disguised as a Spaniard, with Spanish colours painted on the ship's

side just forward of the bridge, though not discernable in the photograph.

To face p. -JiO

LIFE ON BOARD A Q-SHIP 221

the Forth. By giving her a black funnel with a
white V she might be the Glouceste?' Coast of the
Powell, Bacon, and Hough Lines, Ltd. ; by altering
the funnel to black, white, red, white, and black
bands she might have been the Streathatn, owned by
Messrs. John Harrison, Ltd. Other similar craft,
sucli as the Blackburn and Bargang, had no funnel
marks ; so here again were more disguises. Penslmrst
further altered her appearance at times by taking
down her mizzen-mast altogether, by filling in the
well deck forward, by adding a false steam-pipe to
the funnel, by shortening and levelling the derricks,
by removing the main cross-trees, by painting or
varnishing the wood bridge-screen, by giving the
deckhouses a totally different colour, by showing red
lead patches on the hull, and varying the colour of
the sides with such hues as black to-day, next time
green or grey or black, and adding a sail on the
forestay.

If you will examine the photos of Commander
Douglas's Q-ship Barranca, you will see how cleverly,
by means of a little faking, even a much bigger ship
could be disguised. In one picture you see her alley-
ways covered up by a screen, funnel markings altered,
and so on ; whilst in another the conspicuous white
upper- works, the white band on the funnel, and the
dark hull make her a different ship, so that, he tells
me, on one occasion after passing a suspicious neutral
steamer and not being quite satisfied, he was able to
steam out of sight, change his ship's appearance, and
then overtake her, get quite close and make a careful
examination without revealing his identity. To the
landsman all this may seem impossible, but inasmuch
as the sea is traversed nowadays by steamers differing
merely in minute details, distinguished only to the

222 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

practised eye of the sailor, such deception is possible.
I remember on one occasion during the war a sur-
prising instance of this. Being in command of a
steam drifter off the south-west Irish coast, I obtained
Admiral Bayly's permission at my next refit to have
the ship painted green, the foremast stepped, the
funnel and markings painted differently, and a Dublin
fishing letter and number painted on the bows, a suit-
able name being found in the Fisherman's Almanack.
The 6 -pounder gun forward was covered with fishing
gear, which could be thrown overboard as soon as the
ship came into action. Discarding naval uniform and
wearing old cloth caps and clothes, we left Queens-
town, steamed into Berehaven, and tied up alongside
a patrol trawler with whom we had been working in
company for nearly a year. The latter's crew never
recognized us until they saw our faces, and even then
insisted that we had got a new ship ! In fact, one of
them asserted that he knew this Dublin drifter very
well, at which my Scotch crew from the Moray Firth
were vastly amused.

Routine at sea of course differed in various Q-ships,
but it may be interesting to set down the following,
which prevailed in that well-organized ship Penshurst :

SEA ROUTINE.

4J r Call guns' crew of morning watch ; 3-pounder crew

rt ^ oj ^' ^3is\\ up and stow. Guns' crew close up, uncover

^ ^ '^ § ' guns, unship 6-pounder night-sights. Gunlayers

jq 33 O W report their crews closed up to officei's of the

P-i \ Avatch.

5.30 a.m. Call cooks and stewards.
6.0 a.m. 12-pounder crew and one of 3-pounder crew to wash

down bridges and saloon-decks.
7.0 a.m. Call guns' ci-ews of forenoon watch, lash up and

stow hammocks. Hands to wash.
7.30 a.m. Forenoon watch to breakfast.

Q-sHip "Barranca"
Disguised as a ditferent ship with yellow funnel and black boot-top.

Q-SHip •' Barranca"

Appearance cbanged by closing up alley-ways, painting hull, ship's boats, and
funnel so as to resemble a freighter of the P. it O. Line.

To face p. 222

LIFE ON BOARD A Q-SHIP 223

8.0 a.m. Change watches. Morning watch lash up and stow
hammocks. Breakfast.

9.0 a.m. Watch below clean mess-deck, etc.

1 1.30 a.m. Afternoon watch to dinner.

12.30 p.m. Change watches. Forenoon watch to dinner.

1.30 p.m. Cooks clean up mess-deck.

3.30 j).m. Tea.

4.0 p.m. Change watches. Afternoon watch to tea.

6.0 p.m. Change watches.

7.0 p.m. Supper.

8.0 p.m. Change watches. Watch below to supper.

Sunset. Clean guns, ship 6"-pounder night-sights. Cover
guns. Drill as required.

A few weeks after the war, Lord Jellicoe remarked
publicly that in the ' mystery ship ' there had been
displayed a spirit of endurance, discipline, and courage,
the like of which the world had never seen before.
He added that he did not think the English people
realized the wonderful work which these ships had
done in the war. No one who reads the facts here
presented can fail to agree with this statement, which,
indeed, is beyond argument. Discipline, of course,
there was, even in the apparently and externally
most slovenly tramp Q-ship ; and it must not be
thought that among so many crews of ' hard cases '
all the hands ^vere as harmless as china shepherd-
esses. When ashore, the average sailor is not always
at his best : his qualities are manifest on sea and in
the worst perils pertaining to the sea. The landsman,
therefore, has the opportunity of observing him when
the sailor wants to forget about ships and seas. If
some of the Q- ships' crews occasionally kicked over
the traces in the early days the fault was partly their
own, but partly it was as the result of circumstances.
Even Q-ship crews were human, and after weeks of
cruising and pent-up keenness, after being battered
about by seas, shelled by submarines while lying in

224 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

dreadful suspense, and then doing all that human
nature could be expected to perform, much may be
forgiven them if the attractions of the shore tempo-
rarily overpowered them. In the early stages of the
Q-ship the mistake was made of sending to them the
' bad hats ' and impossible men of the depots ; but
the foolishness of this was soon discovered. Only
the best men were good enough for this special
service, and as the men were well paid and well
decorated in return for success, there was no difficulty
in choosing from the forthcoming volunteers an ideal
crew. Any Q-ship captain will bear testimony to
the wonderful effect wrought on a crew by the first
encounter with an enemy submarine. The average
seaman has much in him of the simple child, and has
to be taught by plain experience to see the use and
necessity of monotonous routine, of drills and dis-
cipline ; but having once observed in hard battle the
value of obedience, of organization and the like, he is
a different man — he looks at sea-life, in spite of its
boredom, from a totally different angle. Perfect
discipline usually spelled victory over the enemy.
Presently that, in turn, indicated a medal ribbon and
' a drop of leaf ' at home, so as to tell his family all
about it. Never again would he overstay his leave :
back to the ship for him to give further evidence of
his prowess.

This was the kind of fellow who could be relied
upon to maintain at sea the gallant traditions of British
seamanhood, and in their time of greatest peril the
true big-souled character manifested itself, as real
human truth always emerges in periods of crisis. I
am thinking of one man who served loyally and faith-
fully in a certain Q-ship. In one engagement this
gallant British sailor while in the execution of his

LIFE ON BOARD A Q-SHIP 225

duty was blown literally to pieces except for an arm,
a leg in a sea-boot, and the rest a mere shattered,
indescribable mass, his blood and flesh being scattered
everywhere by the enemy's attack. And yet the last
words of this good fellow, spoken just before it was
too late, did much to help the Q-ship in her success.
In a previous engagement this man's gun had the
misfortune to start with seven missfires. This was
owing to ammunition rendered faulty by having been
kept on the deck too long as ' ready-use.' Conse-
quently his gun did not come into action as quickly
as the others. This piece of bad luck greatly upset
such a keen warrior, and he was determined that no
such accident should occur again. Therefore, in the
next fight, just as he was crouching with his gun's
crew behind the bridge-screen, he was heard to say to
his mates : ' Now, mind. We're to be the first gun in
action this time.' Immediately afterwards a shell
came and killed him instantaneously.

Or, again, consider the little human touch in the
case of the Q-ship commanded by Lieut. -Commander
McLeod, which had been ' done in ' and was sinking,
so that she had really to be abandoned. When all
were getting away in the boats, Lieut. -Commander
McLeod's servant was found to be missing. At the
last moment he suddenly reappeared, carrying with
him a bag which he had gone back to fetch. In it
was Lieut.-Commander McLeod's best monkey-
jacket. ' I thought as you might want this, sir, seeing
you'll have to go and see the Admiral when we get
back to Queenstown,' was his cool explanation.
Nothing could crush this kind of spirit, which pre-
vailed in the trenches, the air, and on sea until the
Armistice was won. It is the spirit of our forefathers,
the inheritance of our island race, which, notwith-

15

226 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

standing political and domestic tribulations, lies silent,
dormant, undemonstrative, until the great hour comes
for the best that is in us to show itself. Germany, of
course, had her disguised armed ships, such as the
3Ioewe, the JVolf, and so on, and with them our late
enemies performed unquestionably brilliant work all
over the world. It is true, also, that a similar
achievement was attained in one disguised sailing
ship ; nor can we fail to admire the pluck and enter-
prise which enabled them to get through the British
blockade. To belittle such first-class work would be
to turn one's back on plain truth.

But the Q-ship service was not a short series of
three or four spasms, but took its part in the persistent
prosecution of the anti-submarine campaign. It
remained a perpetual thorn in the enemy's side, and
it was a most dangerous thorn. Unlike the U-boat
service in its later stages, it continued to be composed
of volunteers, and it was certainly the means of
bringing to light extraordinary talent and courage.
Like other children, the seaman loves dressing up and
acting. In the Q-ship he found this among the other
attractions, of which not the least was the conscious
joy of taking a big share in the greatest of all wars.
In one Q-ship alone were earned no fewer than four
D.S.O.'s and three bars, five D.S.C.'s and seven bars,
one Croix de Guerre, and six ' mentions ' among the
officers. Among the men this ship earned twenty-
one D.S.M.'s and four bars, as well as three ' mentions.'
To-day as you pass some tired old tramp at sea, or
watch a begrimed steamer taking in a cargo of coals,
you may be gazing at a ship as famous as Grenville's
Revenge or Drake's Golden Hind. At the end of
the war the Admiralty decided to place a memorial
tablet on board each merchant vessel that had acted

LIFE ON BOARD A Q-SHIP 227

as a decoy during the war, the tablet being suitably
inscribed with details of the gallant ship's service,
together with the names of the commanding officer
and members of the crew who received decorations.
The first of these ships so to be commemorated
was the Lodorer, better known to us as Captain
Campbell's Q-ship Farnborough. After hostilities,
in the presence of representatives of the owners and
tlie iMinistry of Shipping, Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander
Duff unveiled Lodoj^efs tablet, and those who read it
may well think and reflect.

CHAPTER XVI

Q-SHIPS EVERYWHERE

In the spring of 1917 there was a 2,905-ton steamship,
called the Bracondale, in the employment of the
Admiralty as a collier. It was decided that she
would make a very useful Q-ship, so at the begin-
ning of April she was thus commissioned and her
name changed to Chagford. She was fitted out at
Devonport and armed with a 4-inch, two 12-pounders,
and a couple of torpedo tubes, and was ready for sea
at the end of June. Commanded by Lieutenant
D. G. Jeffrey, R.N. R., she proceeded to Falmouth
in order to tune everything up, and then was based
on Buncrana, which she left on August 2 for what
was to be her last cruise, and I think that in the
following story we have another instance of heroism
and pertinacity of great distinction.

Chagford' s position on August 5 at 4.10 a.m. was
roughly 120 miles north-west of Tory Island, and she
was endeavouring to find two enemy submarines which
had been reported on the previous day. At the time
mentioned she was herself torpedoed just below the
bridge, and in this one explosion was caused very
great injury : for it disabled both her torpedo tubes
and her 4-inch gun ; it shattered the boats on the
starboard side as well as the captain's cabin and chart
room. In addition, it also wrecked all the voice-pipe
connections to the torpedo tubes and guns, and it

228

Q-SHIPS EVERYWHERE 229

flooded the engine-room and put the engines out of
commission, kiUing one of the crew. Lieutenant
Jeffrey therefore ' abandoned ' ship, and just as the
boats were getting away two periscopes and a sub-
marine were sighted on the starboard side 800 yards
away. As soon as the enemy came to the surface
fire was opened on her by the two 12-pounders and
both Lewis and machine-guns, several direct hits
being observed. The submarine then dived, but at
4.40 a.m. she fired a second torpedo at Chagford,
which hit the ship abaft the bridge on the starboard
side.

From the time the first torpedo had hit, the enemy
reahzed that Chagford was a warship, for the 4-inch
gun and torpedo tubes had been made visible, and
now that the second explosion had come Lieutenant
Jeffrey decided to recall his boats so that the ship
might genuinely be abandoned. The lifeboat, dinghy,
and a barrel raft were accordingly filled, and about
5.30 a.m. the enemy fired a third torpedo, which
struck also on the starboard side. Having sent
away in the boats and raft everyone with the ex-
ception of himself and a lieutenant, R.N.R., two
sub-Heutenants, R.N.R., also an assistant-paymaster,
R.N.R., and one petty officer, Lieutenant Jeffrey
stationed these in hiding under cover of the fo'c'sle
and poop, keeping a smart look-out, however, through
the scuttles.

Here was another doomed ship rolling about in the
Atlantic without her crew, and only a gallant handful
of British seamanhood still standing by with but a
shred of hope. To accentuate their suspense peri-
scopes were several times seen, and from 9 a.m. until
9 p.m. a submarine frequently appeared on the
surface at long range, and almost every hour a peri-

230 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

scope passed round the ship inspecting her cautiously.
During the whole of this time Cfiagford was settling
down gradually but certainly. At dark Lieutenant
Jeffrey, fearing that the enemy might attempt board-
ing, placed Lewis and Maxim guns in position and
served out rifles and bayonets to all. Midnight
came, and after making a further examination of the
damage, Lieutenant Jeffrey realized that it was im-
possible for the Chagford to last much longer, for
her main deck amidships was split from side to side,
the bridge deck was badly buckled, and the whole
ship was straining badly. Therefore, just before
half-past midnight, these five abandoned the ship in
a small motor- boat which they had picked up at sea
some days previously, but before quitting Chagford
they disabled the guns, all telescopic sights and
strikers being removed.

Having shoved off, they found to their dismay
that there were no tanks in the motor-boat, so she
had to be propelled by a couple of oars, and it will
readily be appreciated that this kind of propulsion in
the North Atlantic was not a success. They then
thought of going back to the ship, but before they
could do so they were fortunately picked up at
7.30 a.m. by H.M. trawler Saxon, a large submarine
having been seen several times on the horizon between
4 and 7 a.m. The trawler then proceeded to hunt
for the submarine, but, as the latter had now made
off, volunteers were called for and went aboard
Chagford, so that by 4 p.m. Saxon had commenced
towing her. Bad luck again overcame their efforts,
for wind and sea had been steadily increasing, and of
course there was no steam, so the heavy work of
handling cables had all to be done by hand. Until
the evening the ship towed fairly well at 2 knots,

Q-SHIPS EVERYWHERE 231

but, as she seemed then to be breaking up, the tow-
rope had to be shpped, and just before eight o'clock
next morning (August 7) she took a final plunge and
disappeared. The Saxon made for the Scottish coast
and landed the survivors at Oban on the morning of
the eighth. In this encounter, difficult as it was,
Chagford had done real service, for she had damaged
the submarine so much that she could not submerge,
and this was probably U 44 which H.M.S. Oracle
sighted in the early hours of August 12 off the north
coast of Scotland, evidently bound to Germany.
Orach chased her ; U 44 kept diving and coming to
the surface after a short Avhile. She had disguised
herself as a trawler, and was obviously unable to dive
except for short periods. Oracle shelled and then
rammed her, so that U 44 was destroyed and Chagford
avenged. Nothing more was seen of Chagford except
some wreckage found by a trawler on August 11, who
noticed the word Bracondale on the awnings.

After Lieutenant Jeffrey and crew had returned to
their base they proceeded to fit out the 2,794-ton
S.S. Arvonian. This was to be a very powerful
Q-ship, for she was armed with three 4-inch guns
instead of one, in addition to three 12-pounders, two
Maxim guns, and actually four 18-inch torpedo tubes.
She was, in fact, a light cruiser, except for speed and
appearance, but the Chagford crew were destined to
disappointment, for this is what happened. The
reader will recollect that in her engagement of June 7,
1917, Captain Campbell's famous ship Pargust
received so much damage that she had to be left in
dockyard hands while he and his crew went to sea in
the Dunraven. Now, at the beginning of October
Admiral Sims asked the British Admiralty for a ship
to carry out this decoy work, and to be manned by

232 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

the United States Navy. The Admiralty therefore
selected Pargust, and Admiral Sims then assigned
her to the U.S.N, forces based on Queenstown. Her
repairs, however, took rather a longer time than had
been hoped ; in fact, she was not finished and com-
missioned again until the following May, so it was
decided to pay off Arvonian on November 26, 1917,
and she was then recommissioned with a United
States crew under Commander D. C. Hanrahan,
U.S.N., and changed her name to Santee. By the
time she left Queenstown for her maiden cruise she
was a very wonderful ship. Her 4-inch guns had
been disguised by being recessed, and by such con-
cealments as lifebuoy lockers, hatch covers, and so on.
The 12-pounder gun aft had a tilting mounting, as
also had the two 12-pounders forward at the break of
the fo'c'sle on either side. Thus they were concealed,
but could be instantly brought into position. Her
four torpedo tubes were arranged so that there was
one on each beam, one to fire right ahead, and one to
fire right astern. She also boasted of a searchlight, a
wireless set, and an emergency wireless apparatus.
She had two lifeboats, two skiffs, two Carley floats,
and also a motor-boat. She was thus the last word
in Q-ship improvements, and embodied all the lessons
which had been learnt by bitter and tragic experience.
Two days after Christmas, 1917, she left Queenstown
at dusk on her way to Bantry Bay to train her crew,
but in less than five hours she was torpedoed. It
was no disgrace, but a sheer bit of hard luck which
might have happened to any other officer, British or
American. Commander Hanrahan was one of the
ablest and keenest destroyer captains of the American
Navy, and no one who had ever been aboard his ship
could fail to note his efficiency. He had been one of

Q-SHIPS EVERYWHERE 233

the early destroyer arrivals when the United States
that summer had begun to send their destroyer
divisions across the Atlantic to Queenstown, and he
had done most excellent work.

But on this night his Q-ship career came to a
sudden stop, though not before everything possible
had been done to entrap the enemy. It was one of
those cloudy, moonlight, wintry nights with good
visibility. As might have been expected under such
a captain there was a total absence of confusion ; all
hands went to their stations, the ' panic ' party got
away in accordance with the best ' panic ' traditions,
while on board the crews remained at their gun
stations for five hours, hoping and longing for the
submarine to show herself. No such good fortune
followed, for the submarine was shy ; so just before
midnight Commander Hanrahan sent a wireless
message to Admiral Bayly at Queenstown, and very
shortly afterwards the U.S. destroyer Cuitwihigs
arrived. At 1 a.m. the tug Paladin took Santee in
tow, escorted by four United States destroyers and
the two British sloops Viola and Bluebell. Santee
got safely into port and was sent to Devonport, where
she was eventually handed back by the U.S.N, to the
British Navy, owing to the time involved in repairs.
On June 4, 1918, she was once more recommissioned
in the Royal Navy and took the name of Bendish, the
crew having come from the Q-ship Starmount. By
this date the conditions of submarine warfare had
undergone a modification. In home waters it was
only the quite small Q-ships of the coaster type, of
about 500 tons, which could be expected to have any
chance of successfully engaging a submarine. This
class would normally be expected to be seen within
the narrow seas, and the enemy would not be so

234 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

shy. But for such vessels as Bendish and Pargiist
the most promising sphere was likely to be between
Gibraltar and the Azores and the north-west coast of
Africa, where German so-called ' cruiser ' submarines
of the DeiUschland type were operating. Therefore a
special force, based on Gibraltar but operating in the
Azores area or wherever submarines were to be
expected, was organized, consisting of four Q-ships.
These were the Bendish (late Santee), Captain
Campbell's former ship Pargust but now named the
Pangloss, the Underwing, and the Marshfort^ the
whole squadron being under the command of Lieut. -
Commander Dane in Bendish. After being at last
ready for sea in May, 1918, Pangloss, commanded by
Lieutenant Jeffrey, who for his fine work in Chagford
had received the D.S.O., had then been assigned
to serve under the Vice-Admiral Northern Patrols
until she was sent south.

Under the new scheme just mentioned these four
Q-ships were so worked that they always arrived
and sailed from Gibraltar as part of the convoy of
merchant ships, from which class they could not be
distinguished. But already long before this date
Q-ships had been employed in such distant waters.
For instance, in the middle of November, 1916, the
BaiTanca (Lieut. -Commander S. C. Douglas, R.N.)
was sent from Queenstown via Devonport, and
proceeded to operate in the neighbourhood of Madeira
and the Canaries, based on Gibraltar. This ship,
known officially as Q 3 (alias Eclmnga), had been
taken over from Messrs. Elders and FyfFes, Ltd. Her
registered tonnage was 4,115, and she had a speed of
14 knots, so she was eminently fitted for this kind
of work. She had been employed as a Q-ship since
June, 1916, and was armed with a 4-inch, two

Q-sHip Tkansformation
Crew painting funnel while at sea (see pp. 220-1).

Q-SHiP "Barranca" at Sea
The look-out man aft is disguised as one of the Mercantile crew. The dummy
wheel, dummy sky-light, and dummy deck-house are seen. The latter con-
cealed a 4-inch gun and two 12-pounders.

To face p. 234

I

Q-SHIPS EVERYWHERE 235

12-pounders, and two G-pounders, and terminated lier
service in the following 5lay. Her captain had been
one of the earliest officers to be employed in decoy
work, having been second in command to Lieut. -
Commander Godfrey Herbert when that officer com-
manded the Antwerp. Soon after this date the Q-ship
UunclutJia left for that part of the Atlantic which
is between the north-east coast of South America and
north-west coast of Africa. This ship, together with
Oo?na, both of them being vessels of between 3,000
and 4,000 tons, had commenced their special service
at the end of 1910 and been sent to work under
the British Commodore off the east coast of South
America in the hope of falling in with one of the
German raiders, such as the Moeive. In May, 1918,
both these vessels had to be withdrawn from such
service, as the shortage of tonnage had become acute,
and were required to load general cargo in a Brazilian
port. Another of these overseas Q-ships was the
Bomhala (alias IVillow Branch). She was a 3,314-ton
steamer and had left Gibraltar on April 18, 1918, for
Sierra Leone, A week later, off the West African
coast, she sighted a submarine off the port quarter,
and a few minutes later a second one off the starboard
bow. Both submarines opened their attack with
shells, this class of submarine being armed with a
couple of 5-9-inch guns. After about thirty rounds
the enemy had found the range, and then began to
hit the ship repeatedly, carrying away the wireless
and causing many casualties. Bombala shortened the
range so that she could use her 4-inch and 14-pounder,
and the action went on for two and a half hours. By
that time Bombala was done for, and it was impossible
to save the ship ; so the crew were ordered into the
boats, and then the ship foundered, bows first. How-

236 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

ever, the Q-ship had not sunk without severely
damagmg the enemy, for when the submarines came
alongside Bombalas boats it was found that in one of
the submarines there were seven killed and four
wounded.

Q-ships were kept pretty busy, too, in the Medi-
terranean. On March 11, 1917, when Wonganella
(Lieut. -Commander B. J. D. Guy, R.N.) was on her
way from Malta to England via Gibraltar, she was
shelled by a submarine, and while the ' panic ' party
were getting out the boats, a shell wounded the
officer and several of the crew in the starboard life-
boat. Another shell went through the bulwarks of
the ship, wounding some men and bursting the
steam-pipe of the winch, thus rendering unworkable
the derrick used for hoisting out the third boat, and
the port lifeboat was also damaged. Shells burst in
the well deck and holed the big boat, so in this case,
as all his boats were ' done in,' the captain had to
give up the idea of ' abandoning ' ship. There was
nothing for it but to open fire, though it was not
easy for orders to be heard in that indescribable din
when shells were bursting, steam pouring out from
the burst winch-pipe, wounded men in great pain,
and Wonganella s own boiler-steam blowing off with
its annoying roar. As soon as fire was opened, the
submarine dived and then fired a torpedo, which was
avoided by Wonganella going astern with her engines,
the torpedo just missing the ship's fore-foot by 10 feet.
No more was seen of the enemy, and at dusk the
armed steam yacht lolanda was met, from whom a
doctor was obtained, thus saving the lives of several
of the wounded. In this engagement, whilst the
White Ensign was being hoisted, the signal halyards
were shot away, so the ensign had to be carried up
the rigging and secured thereto.

Q-SHIPS EVERYWHERE 237

Wonganella was holed on the water-hne and hit
elsewhere, but she put into Gibraltar on March 13,
and on the evening of June 19 of the same year we
find her out in the Atlantic west of the south-west
Irish coast on her way homeward-bound from Halifax.
A submarine bore down on her from the north, and
at the long range of 8,000 yards was soon straddling
Wonganella. Now the Q-ship happened to have on
board thirty survivors from a steamer recently sunk,
so again it was impossible to attempt the ' abandon
ship ' deception. She therefore used her smoke-screen
— at this time ships were being supplied with special
smoke- making apparatus — and then ran down the
wind at varying speeds and on various courses, with
the hope that the enemy would chase quickly. Won-
ganella would then turn in the smoke-cloud and
suddenly emerge and close the enemy at a more
suitable range. But the best-laid schemes of Q-ships
are subject to the laws of chance, for now there
appeared another merchant ship heading straight
towards this scene, and thus unwittingly frustrated
the further development of the encounter. This
'merchant ship' was the Q-ship Aubrietia (Q 13),
who did, in fact, receive a signal from Wonganella
that no assistance was required ; but by that time it
was too late to withdraw. The submarine, after
shelling Wonganella through the smoke, abandoned
the attack and withdrew without ever scoring a hit.

During all these months the disguised steam
trawlers were continuing their arduous work. On
August 20, 1916, the Gunner from Grant on engaged
a submarine during the afternoon, but the German
subsequently dived. Gu?me?^ then proceeded on a
westerly course whilst she altered her disguise, and
then that same evening encountered this submarine

238 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

again, shelled her, but once more the enemy broke
off the fight. The disguised Granton trawler Speed-
well was also operating in a manner similar to Gunner,
and in the following March the trawler Commissioner
began her decoy work. She was a 161 -ton ship armed
with a 12-pounder, her method of working being as
follows: Lieutenant F. W. Charles, R.N.R., was in
command of the fighting portion of the crew, but her
fishing skipper was otherwise in charge of the ship.
Commissioner proceeded to join the Granton fishing
fleet, looking like any other steam trawler, and then
shot her trawl and carried on like the rest of the fleet.
When a submarine should appear Commissioner would
cut away her fishing gear and then attack the enemy.
Such an occasion actually occurred the very day after
she first joined the fishing fleet, but the submarine
was not sunk.

A similar decoy was the Granton steam trawler
Rosskeen, which left the Firth of Forth to 'fish'
about 20 miles east of the Longstone. Three days
later she was just about to shoot her trawl when a
shot came whistling over her wheelhouse, and a large
submarine was then seen 8,000 yards away. After
twenty minutes, during which the enemy's shells fell
uncomfortably close, Rosskeen cut away her gear and
'abandoned' ship. The submarine then obligingly
approached on the surface towards the rowing boat,
and when the range was down to 1,200 yards Ross-
keen,w\\o was armed with a 12-pounder and 6-pounder,
opened fire from the former and hit the submarine,
the conning-tower being very badly damaged by the
third shot. Two more shells got home, and by this
time the enemy had had enough, and dived.

These trawlers were undoubtedly both a valuable
protection to the fishermen (who had been repeatedly

Q SHIPS EVERYWHERE 239

attacked by the enemy) and a subtle trap for some
of the less experienced submarine captains. During
May two more trawlers, the Strathallan and Strath-
earn, were similarly commissioned, and even steam
drifters such as the Fort George (armed with one
G-pounder) were employed in this kind of work. On
the thirteenth of June Strathearn was fishing 19 miles
east of the Bell Rock when five shots were fired at
her, presumably by a submarine, though owing to
the hazy weather nothing could be seen. The enemy
then evidently sighted a destroyer and disappeared.
On the following day Fort George was fishing about
35 miles east of May Island, when she was attacked
by submarine at 2,000 yards. It was ten o'clock at
night, and the drifter, after the third round, secured
her fishing gear and returned the fire. The enemy
was evidently surprised, for after the drifter had fired
three shells the German broke off the engagement
and submerged, but with his fourth and fifth rounds
he had hit Fort George, killing two and wounding
another couple.

But on the following twenty-eighth of January
Fort George was about 14 miles east of May Island,
with the decoy trawler IV. S. Baileij (Lieutenant
C. H. Hudson, D.S.C., R.N.R.). the two ships
were listening on their hydrophones when a sub-
marine was distinctly heard some distance away, and
it was assumed that the enemy was steering for May
Island, so the W. S. Bailey after proceeding for a
quarter of an hour in that direction listened again,
and the sounds w^ere heard more plainly. For an
hour and a half the enemy was determinedly hunted,
and just after 9 p.m. the sounds became very distinct,
so the trawler steamed full speed ahead in the sub-
marine's direction, dropped a depth charge, listened,

240 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

and then, as the enemy was still heard on the hydro-
phone, a second charge was dropped. The trawler
then went full speed astern to check her way, and
just as she was stopping there were sighted two
periscopes not 20 yards away, on the starboard
quarter, and going full speed. The trawler then
dropped a third depth charge over the spot where
the periscopes had disappeared, and nothing further
was heard on the hydrophone, but a fourth charge
was then let go to make sure, and the position was
buoyed, and the disguised craft remained in the
vicinity until January 30. A few days later the
W. S. Bailey swept with her chain- sweep over the
position, and on each occasion the sweep brought up
in the place that had been buoyed, and a quantity of
oil was seen. Local fishermen accustomed to working
their gear along this bottom reported that the ob-
struction was quite new. In short, the W. S. Bailey
had succeeded in destroying UB 63, a submarine
about 180 feet long and well armed with a 4*1 -inch
gun and torpedoes. For this useful service Lieutenant
Hudson received a bar to his D.S.C., while Skipper
J. H. Lawrence, R.N.R., was awarded the D.S.C.

Thus, in all waters and in all manner of ships wear-
ing every kind of disguise, the shy submarine was
being tempted and sought out, though every month
decoy work was becoming more and more difficult :
for though you might fool the whole German sub-
marine service in the early stages of Q-ships, it was
impossible that you could keep on bluffing all of them
every time. The most that could be expected was
that as a reward for your constant vigilance and per-
fect organization you might one day catch him off his
guard through his foolishness or lack of experience or
incautiousness. But every indecisive action made it

I

Q-SHIPS EVERYWHERE 241

worse for the Q-ships, for that vessel was a mark for
future attack and the enemy's inteUigence department
was thereby enriched, and outgoing submarines could
be warned against such a trawler or such a tramp
whose guns had a dead sector on such a bearing.
Thus an inefficient Q-ship captain would be a danger
not merely to himself and his men, but to the rest of
the force. Nothing succeeds like success, and there
was nothing so useful as to make a clean job of the
submarine-sinking, so that he could never get back
home and tell the news. Surprise, whether in real
life or fiction, is a factor that begins to lose its power
in proportion to its frequency of use. It was so in
the Q-ships, and that is why, after a certain point had
been reached, this novel method became so difficult
and so barren in results.

16

CHAPTER XVII

SHIPS OF ALL SIZES

The unrestricted phase of submarine warfare insti-
tuted in February, 1917, had, apart from other means,
been met by an increase in the number of Q-ships, so
that by the end of May there were close upon eighty
steamers and sailing craft either being fitted out as
decoys or already thus employed. By far the greater
number of the big Q-ships were serving under
Admiral Bayly, the other large craft being based on
Longhope, Portsmouth, the south-east of England,
and Malta. Of the smaller types, such as trawlers
and sailing ships, no fewer than one-half were based
on Granton, under Admiral Startin, the rest of these
little vessels working out of Stornoway, Longhope,
Peterhead, Lowestoft, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Fal-
mouth, Milford Haven, and Malta.

One of the moderate-sized Q-steamers was the
1,680-ton Stonecrop, alias Glenfoyle, which was armed
with a 4-inch, a 12-pounder, and four 200-lb. howit-
zers. She had begun her special service at the end of
May, 1917, under Commander M. B. R. Blackwood,
R.N. She was very slow, and her captain found her
practically unmanageable in anything of a head wind
and sea. Her first cruise was in the English Channel,
and she left Portsmouth on August 22. Three days
later when 15 miles south of the Scillies she saw a
large steamer torpedoed and sunk. Stonecrop herself

242

SHIPS OF ALL SIZES 243

was caught in bad weather, and had to run before the
gale and sea towing an oil bag astern. Arriving back
at Portsmouth she needed a few repairs, and left again
on September 11 to cruise off the western approaches
of the British Isles. Six days later she was off the
south-west coast of Ireland steering a westerly course
when a submarine was seen on the surface. This was
the U 88, one of the biggest types, over 200 feet long,
armed with a 4*l-inch and a 22-pounder, plus tor-
pedoes. It was now 4.40 p.m., and though the enemy
was still several miles away he opened fire three
minutes later with both guns. Stonecrop accordingly
pretended to flee from his wrath, turned 16 points,
made off at her full speed (which was only 7 knots),
made S.O.S. signals on her wireless, followed by
' Hurry up or I shall have to abandon ship ' — oi clair
so that the submarine should read it. And in order
further still to simulate a defensively armed merchant
ship she replied with her after gun.

Thus it went on until .5.15 p.m., by which time the
submarine had not registered a hit and was gradually
closing : but most of the shells were falling very near
to the steamer, so that the German might easily have
supposed they were hits. In order to fool the enemy
further still Commander Blackwood had his smoke
apparatus now lit. This was most successful, the
whole ship becoming enveloped in smoke and seeming
to be on fire. A quarter of an hour later Stonecrop
' abandoned ' ship, sending away also a couple of
hands in uniform to represent the men from the
deserted defensive gun. The submarine then dis-
played the usual tactics : submerged, came slowly
towards the ship, passing down the port side, round-
ing the stern, and then came to the surface 600 yards
off' the starboard quarter, displaying the whole of his

244 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

length. For three minutes the British and German
captains remained looking at each other, the former,
of course, from his position of concealment. But at
ten minutes past six, as there were still no signs of
anyone coming out of the conning-tower hatch, and
as the U-boat seemed about to make for Stonecrop's
boats, Captain Blackwood decided this was the critical
moment and gave the order. From the 4- inch gun
and all howitzers there suddenly poured across the
intervening 600 yards a very hot fire, which had
unmistakable effect : for the fourth shot hit the base
of the conning-tower, causing a large explosion and
splitting the conning-tower in two. The fifth shot
got her just above the water-line under the foremost
gun, the sixth struck between that gun and the
conning-tower, the seventh hit 30 feet from the end
of the hull, the eighth got her just at the angle of the
conning-tower and deck, the ninth and tenth shells
came whizzing on to the water-line between the after
gun and conning-tower, whilst the eleventh hit the
deck just abaft the conning-tower and tearing it up.
Good gunnery, certainly !

This was about as much as the stunned submarine
could stand, and forging ahead she suddenly sub-
merged and sank stern first, but a few seconds later
she rose to the surface with a heavy list to starboard,
and then sank for good and all. For, on submerging,
she had found she was leaking so badly that her con-
dition was hopeless, and she was doubtless intending
to surrender, but apparently the fourth shot from
Stonecrop had so damaged the conning-tower hatch
that it could not be opened. Thus there perished
U 88, but this was more than the sinking of an
ordinary submarine, for with her there went to his
doom Lieut. -Commander Schwieger, who, when in

?

SHIPS OF ALL SIZES 245

command of U 20, had sunk the Lusitaiiia on May 7,
1915, with the loss of over eleven hundred men,
women, and children. Altogether Stofiec?'op\s- action
had been very neat. He had lured the enemy into a
short range, utterly fooled him, and then disabled him
before he woke up. For this service Commander
Blackwood received the D.S.O., and three ll.N.R.
lieutenants and a naval warrant officer each received
a D.S.C. But Q-ship life was always full of un-
certainties, for on the very next day Stonecrop was
herself torpedoed by another submarine at 1 p.m.,
though fortunately this was in a position a little nearer
the coast. Two officers and twenty survivors were
picked up by a motor-launch of the Auxiliary Patrol
and landed at Berehaven ; sixty-four men in one boat
and a raft were remaining behind, but all available
craft were sent out to rescue them.

The employment of small coasting steamers was,
during the last phase of the war, more and more
developed. What the Q-ship captain liked was that
the enemy should attack him not with torpedoes but
with gunfire. Now, even the biggest German sub-
marines carried usually not more than ten torpedoes,
and inasmuch as his cruise away from any base lasted
weeks, and, in the case of the JDeutschland class, even
months, it was obvious that the U-boat had to con-
serve his torpedoes for those occasions which were
really worth while. From this it follows that a sub-
marine captain who knew his work, and was anxious
to make a fine haul before ending his cruise, would
not, as a rule, waste his torpedoes on a 500-ton
steamer when he might have secured much bigger
tonnage by using the same missile against a 20,000-ton
liner.

This suggested an avenue of thought, and as early

246 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

as January, 1918, the matter was considered by
Admiral Bayly and developed. Already there were
in existence several small vessels acting as Q-ships,
but simultaneously carrying out in all respects the
duties of cargo-carriers from port to port, and thus
paying their way. It was now decided to look for a
little steamer which, based on Queenstown, would
work between the Bristol Channel, Irish Sea, and the
south coast of Ireland, where even during the height
of the submarine campaign it was customary to see
such craft. As a result of this decision Captain
Gordon Campbell was sent to inspect the S.S. Wexford
Coast, which was being repaired at Liverpool. Her
gross tonnage was only 423, she had a well deck,
three masts, and engines placed aft : just the ordinary-
looking, innocent steamer that would hardly attract a
torpedo. Owned by Messrs. Powell, Bacon, Hough,
and Co., of Liverpool, this vessel had already done
valuable work in the war; for in 1915 she had been
requisitioned for store- carrying in the Dardanelles,
where she was found invaluable in keeping the troops
supplied, and when that campaign came to an end
assisted at the evacuation. Returning to England,
she was again sent out as a store- carrier, this time to
the White Sea. Wexford Coast was now taken up
as a Q-ship, her fitting-out being supervised by Lieut. -
Commander L. S. Boggs, R.N.R., who had been in
command of the Q-ship Tamarisk, and from the last
ship came a large part of her new crew. She was
duly armed, and fitted with a cleverly concealed wire-
less aerial, to be used only in case of emergency, and
was then commissioned on JNIarch 13, 1918, as ' Store-
Carrier No. 80,' this title being for the purpose of
preserving secrecy. She put to sea in her dual
capacity, but on August 31 had the misfortune to be

SHIPS OF ALL SIZES 247

run into by the French S.S. Bidart, six miles south-
east of the Start, at four o'clock in the morning —
another instance of this fatal hour for collisions. The
Frenchman grounded on the Skerries and capsized,
and the We.vford Coast had to put in to Devonport.
After the sinking of the Q-ship Stoch force (to be
related presently), Admiral Bayly wished the captain
and crew of the latter to be appointed to a coaster
similar to Wexjord Coast, so the Suffolk Coast was
chosen at the beginning of August whilst she was
lying in the Firth of Forth. Before the end of the
month she had arrived at QueenstoAvn, where she was
fitted out. On November 10 she set out from
Queenstown, but on the following day came the
Armistice, which spoiled her ambitions. However, in
this, the latest of all Q-ships, we see the development
so clearly that it will not be out of place here to
anticipate dates and give her description.

Suffolk Coast was intentionally the most ordinary-
looking little coaster, with three masts, her engines
and funnel being placed aft, and the very last thing
she resembled was a man-of-war. But she was
heavily armed for so small a ship. In her were
embodied all the concentrated experience of battle
and engineering development. All that could be
learned from actual fighting, from narrow escapes,
and from defects manifested in awkward moments
was here taken advantage of. Instead of a 12-knot
4,000-ton steamer the development had, owing to the
trend of the campaign, been in the direction of a ship
one-eighth of the size, but more cleverly disguised
with better 'gadgets.' In fact, instead of being a
model of simplicity as in the early days, the Q-ship
had become a veritable box of tricks. It was the
triumph of mind over material, of brain over battle.

248 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Coolness and bravery and resolute endurance were
just as requisite in the last as in the first stages of the
campaign, but the qualities of scientific bluff' had
attained the highest value. The basic principle was
extreme offensive power combined with outward
innocence : the artfulness of the eagle, but the
appearance of a dove.

In Suffolk Coast there was one long series of
illusions from forward to aft. On the fo'c'sle head
was a quite usual wire reel such as is used in this
class of ship for winding in a wire rope. But this reel
had been hollowed out inside so as to allow the
captain to con the ship. Near by was also a peri-
scope, but this was disguised by being hidden in a
stove-pipe such as would seem to connect with the
crew's heating arrangements below. Now this was
not merely a display of ingenuity but an improve-
ment based on many a hard case. What frequently
happened after the ' abandon ship ' party pushed off ?
As we have seen, this was often the time when the
real fight began, and the enemy would shell the bridge
to make sure no living thing could remain. That
being so, the obvious position for the captain was to
be away from the bridge, though it broke away from
all the traditions of the sea. In Suffolk Coast the
enemy could continue sweeping the bridge, but the
captain would be under the shelter of the fo'c'sle head
and yet watching intently. Similarly both he and his
men need not, in passing fi'om the bridge or one end
of the ship to another, be exposed to the enemy's fire,
for an ingenious tunnel was made right into the fo'c'sle
through the hold. In a similar manner, if the forward
part of the ship had been ' done in,' there was a peri-
scope aft disguised as a pipe coming up from the
galley stove.

SHIPS OF ALL SIZES 249

Now, when a submarine started shelling a Q-ship, the
latter would naturally heave-to and then pretend she
had been disabled by being hit in the engine-room.
This was achieved by fitting a pipe specially arranged
to let steam issue forth. The importance of wireless
in these death-struggles may well be realized, so not
merely was one wireless cabinet placed below, but
another was situated in the fo'c'sle. The Suffolk Coast,
with her two 4-inch and two 12-pounders, was armed
in a manner superior to any submarines excepting
those of the biggest classes such as voyaged south to the
Canaries and north-west African coast. This Q- ship's
guns were concealed in the most wonderfully ingenious
manner, so that it would have puzzled even a sea-
man to discover their presence. Thus the forward
12-pounder was mounted in No. 1 hold, the hatch
being suitably arranged for collapsing. The first
4-inch gun was placed further aft, covered by a deck,
and the sides made to fall down when the time came
for action. The second 4-inch was mounted still
further aft and similarly concealed, whilst the other
12-pounder was allowed to be conspicuous at the
stern so that all U-craft might believe she was the
usual defensively armed merchant ship. Without
this they might have become suspicious. In this
' mystery ship ' everything was done to render her
capable of remaining afloat for the maximum of time
after injury, and, in addition to having a well- stowed
cargo of timber, she had special watertight bulkheads
fitted. With a thorough system of voice-pipes, so
that the captain could keep a perfect control over the
ship's firing — a most essential consideration, as the
reader will already have ascertained — and a crew of
nearly fifty experienced officers and men, such a small
ship represented the apotheosis of the decoy just as

250 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

the war was terminating. Every sort of scheme
which promised possibiHties was tried, and many-
clever minds had been at work, but this represented
the standard of success after four long years.

Every new aspect of the submarine advancement
had to be thought out and met, and the variations
were most noticeable, but during the last few months
of the war considerable attention had to be concen-
trated on the areas of the Azores, the north, south,
east, and west of Ireland, the Bristol Channel, and
the approaches to the English Channel in the west.
But by the spring of 1918 the crews of German
submarines had become distinctly inferior. Their
commanding officers were often young and raw, there
was a great dearth of trained engineer officers and
experienced petty officers, and this was shown in
frequent engine-room breakdowns. So many sub-
marines had failed to return home, and others reported
such hairbreadth escapes, that the inferior crews
became nervous and were not sorry to be taken
prisoners. The fact was that not only were expert,
highly skilled officers hard to find, but the hands he
was compelled to go to sea with were no longer
chosen by the captain ; he had to accept whatever
recruits were drafted to his craft. Of the best
personnel that remained many had lost their nerve
and had a very real dread of mines, depth charges,
and decoy ships. The institution of our convoy
system and of Q- ships as part of the convoy did not
add to the pleasures of the U-boat officers. It is true
that the often excellent shooting of the submarines
was due to the fact that their gun-layers were generally
selected from the High Sea Fleet, but as against this
many of our Q-ship expert gunners were out of the
Grand Fleet. It is true that the cruiser submarines

SHIPS OF ALL SIZES 251

with their two 5-9-inch guns, plus torpedoes, were
formidable foes even for the most heavily armed
decoy, but as against this they took a long time to
dive, and thus represented a better target.

If we consider these facts in regard to the later
tactics of the submarines in contest with our decoy
ships, there is much that becomes clear. The ex-
cellence of our intelligence system has been shown
by various British and German writers since the war,
and, as a rule, we were extraordinarily prepared for
the new developments with which our Q-ships were
likely to be faced. On the other hand, the enemy's
supply of intelligence w^as bad, and if w^e put ourselves
in the position of an inexperienced young U-boat
captain we can easily see how difficult was his task
toward the end of hostilities. He was sent out to
sink ships, and yet practically every British ship was
at least armed defensively, and there was nothing to
indicate which of them might be a well-armed decoy,
save for the fact that he had been informed by his
superiors that trap-ships were seldom of a size greater
than 4,000 tons. Sailing ships, fishing craft, and
steamers might be ready to spring a surprise, so that
it was not easy for the German to combine ruthless
attack wdth reasonable caution : thus, in effect, the
battle came down to a matter of personality. It was
not merely a question of the man behind the gun,
nor of the man behind the torpedo, but the man
at the periscope of the submarine versus the man
peeping at him from the spy-hole of the steamer.
They were strange tactics, indeed, to be employed in
naval war when we consider the simple, hearty
methods of previous campaigns in history, but even
as an impersonal study of two foes this perpetual
battle of wits, of subtleties, and make-believe, must

252 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

ever remain both interesting and instructive in spite
of the terrible loss of life accompanying it. Life on
board one of the small steam Q-ships was, apart from
its dangers arising through mines and submarines,
distinctly lacking in comfort. The following extracts
from the private diary of a Q-ship's commanding
officer at different dates afford, in the fewest words,
an insight into the life on board :

' The heavy westerly gale was banking up the west-
going tide, and made the most fierce and dangerous
sea that I have ever seen. The ship made little head-
way and was tossed about like a small boat. Fortu-
nately we managed to keep end on to the sea, or I
think the old tub would have gone slick over. As it
was she behaved well, though her movements were
pretty violent. Seas broke over the stern and washed
away the stern gratings, one big sea broke right over
the forward deck, a tumbling mass of foam, into the
water on the other side of the ship, carrying away a
ventilator and some steam-pipes. I had one spasm of
anxiety, when in the middle of all this the wheel
jammed for a few seconds, and I feared she would
broach-to. If we had done so, I think the ship would
at once have been rolled over and smothered. I have
never before seen such enormous breakers. . . .'

' Had just finished tea and was sitting at the table
yarning with the others when the alarm gong went
and we all dashed out. . . . Immediately before the

gong went, M , our young R.N.V.R. signalman,

who had never been to sea before, and who was on

watch, remarked to W , the officer of the watch,

" What's that funny-looking stick sticking out of the

water over there ?" W cast an eye at the said

" funny-looking stick sticking out of the water " 200
yards on our starboard beam, and remarked profanely :

SHIPS OF ALL SIZES 253

" Good God, man, why, it's a periscope !" and promptly
rang the gong.' It was, indeed, a periscope, and
presently the submarine opened fire and sent a shell
through the ship's engine-room, which disabled the
ship, though she was afterwards towed into port,
where she was repaired and refitted for her next
encounter.

' Completed loading timber at 11 a.m. Total 599
tons. That ought to keep us afloat if we are tor-
pedoed. . . . The ship's behaviour is quite different
to what it was with coal ballast. She moves, but
with a much easier motion, and without that terrible

jerkiness she had before. . . . When off the we

fell in with a lifeboat under sail, evidently with
survivors from a sunk ship. Stopped and took them
on board. They turned out to be the captain, 2nd
officer, purser, 3rd engineer, and ten men, part of the

crew of the S.S. , which had been torpedoed at

11.30 a.m. yesterday. . . . Discussing the daily lie

for Fritz with S : To-day we are from Cape

Coast Castle with kernels, bound for London. I
wonder if it will go down with Fritz. . . .'

And the following entry after successfully sinking
a German submarine notwithstanding many months
of monotonous uneventfulness :

' I then " spliced the main-brace." We passed the

S Light at 11.30 p.m., and just before picking

up the Examination boat received a wireless message
from [the Commander-in-Chief], which reads : " Very
well done. A year's perseverance well rewarded." . . .
We anchored at midnight, and a boat at once came
off with a doctor, who removed the wounded. ... A
tug brought off the armed guard sent ... to re-
ceive our prisoners. . . . We formally mustered the
prisoners and handed them over, with the signing of

254 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

receipts for their custody and disposal, etc. It was
an impressive moment when 1 led the officer in
charge to the saloon, and handed over to him the
commanding officer of the submarine. A couple of
bluejackets with rifles fixed promptly closed up at
either elbow, and he was marched out. He had the
grace to pause at the door, where I was standing, and
to thank me for my treatment of him. He was no
doubt very much upset by the loss of his ship : we
found him extremely glum and did our best to cheer
him up. He had lunch with us, and I think he
really did find that we were human. Similarly the
other officers tendered their thanks (they all went
away in a good deal of our clothing), and when it

came to the marching off of the men, stepped

out of the ranks and tendered to me their grateful
thanks for the excellent treatment they had received
at our hands.'

1

CHAPTER XVIII

THE LAST PHASE

One of the effects of the British blockade on Germany
was to prevent such valuable war material as iron
reaching Germany from Spain. Now Spanish ores,
being of great purity, were in pre-war days imported
in large quantities for the manufacture of the best
qualities of steel, and it was a serious matter for Ger-
many that these importations were cut off. But
luckily for her she had been accustomed to obtain,
even prior to the war, supplies of magnetic ore from
Sweden, and it was of the utmost importance that
this should be continued now that the war would last
much longer than she had ever expected.

If you look at a map of Scandinavia inside the
Arctic Circle you will notice the West Fjord, which
is between the Lofoten Isles and the Norwegian
mainland. Follow this up and you come to the
Ofoten Fjord, at the head of which is the Norwegian
port of Narvik. From here there ran across the
Swedish border to liulea what was the most northerly
railway in Europe, and Narvik was a great harbour
for the export of magnetic iron ore. Hither German
ships came, loaded, and then, by keeping within the
three-mile limit of territorial waters, going inside
islands, and taking every possible advantage of night,
managed to get their valuable cargoes back home
for the Teutonic munition makers.

Now it was obviously one of the duties of our

255

256 Q SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Tenth Cruiser Squadron, entrusted with the intercep-
tion of shipping in the north, to see that Germany
did not receive this ore. But having regard to the
deUcacy of not violating the v^aters of a neutral
nation, and bearing in mind the pilotage difficulties
off a coast studded with islands and half- tide rocks,
this was no easy matter. It was here that the small
ships came in so useful. We can go back to June,
1915, and find the armed trawler Tenby Castle (Lieu-
tenant J. T. Randell, R.N.R.) attached nominally to
the Tenth Cruiser Squadron, but sent to work single-
handed, as it were, off the Norwegian coast intercepting
shipping. As a distinguished admiral remarked, here
she lay in a very gallant manner for twenty days,
during which time she sank one enemy ship, very
nearly secured a second, and was able to hand over to
the Tenth Cruiser Squadron a neutral ship with iron
ore. It was a most difficult situation to handle, for it
required not merely a quick decision and bold initia-
tive, but very accurate cross bearings had to be made,
as these offisnding steamers were on the border-line of
territorial waters. That great enemy of all seamen
irrespective of nationality, fog, was in this case actually
to be a very real friend to our trawler ; for in thick
weather and the vicinity of a rock-bound coast full of
hidden dangers, skippers of the ore ships would natur-
ally be inclined to play for safety and stand so far out
from the shore as to be in non-territorial waters. A
further consideration was that owing to the effisct of
the magnetic ore on their compasses they could not
affiard to take undue navigational risks in thick
weather. What they preferred was nice clear weather,
so that they could hug the land.

The success of Tenhy Castle was such that half a

THE LAST PHASE 257

dozen other trawlers were selected and stationed off
that coast except in the wild wintry months, and this
idea, as we shall presently see, was developed still
further, but it will assist our interest if we appreciate
first the difficulties as exemplified in the case of the
Tenhy Castle. On the last day of June, 1915, this
trawler was about five miles N.E. of the Kya Islet,
and it was not quite midday, when she sighted a
steamer coming down from Nero Sound ; so she
closed her and read her name, Pallas. Inasmuch as
the latter was showing no colours, Tenby Castle now
hoisted the White Ensign and the international signal
to stop immediately. This was ignored, so the
trawler came round and saw she was a German ship
belonging to Flensburg, and fired a shot across the
enemy's bow. The German then stopped her engines,
ported her helm, and headed in the direction of the
coast, having a certain amount of way on. The
trawler closed and ordered her to show her colours,
but the German declined ; so the latter was then told
to steer to the westward, which he also refused to do.
Lieutenant Randell, informing him now that he would
give him five minutes in which to make up his mind
either to come with him or be sunk, sent a wireless
signal informing H.M. ships of the Tenth Cruiser
Squadron, then went alongside the German and put an
armed guard aboard ; but the captain of Pallas rang
down for full speed ahead and starboarded his helm,
whereupon Tenby Castle fired a couple of shots at the
steamer's steering gear on the poop, damaging it. The
German stopped his engines once more, but the ship
was gradually drawing towards the shore, so that
when f^ictorian arrived Pallas was about two and a
half miles from the land, thus being just within

17

258 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

territorial waters, and had to be released. There had
been no casualties.

The next incident occurred a week later. At ten
minutes to six on the morning of July 7 Tenby Castle
was lying off the western entrance of the West Fjord,
the weather being thick and rainy, when a large
steamer was seen to the N.N. W., so Tenby Castle put
on full speed and ordered her to stop. This was the
Swedish S.S. Malmland, with about 7,000 tons of
magnetic ore. After being ordered to follow the
trawler, 31almland put on full speed and drew ahead ;
so she was made to keep right astern at reduced
speed, and just before half-past eight that morning
was handed over to H.M.S. India of the above-
mentioned cruiser squadron. The day passed, and it
was a few minutes after midnight when this trawler,
again lying off the West Fjord, sighted a steamer
coming down from Narvik. A shot was fired across
the steamer's bows, and on rounding-to under the
steamship's stern it was observed that she was the
German S.S. Frederick A?y, of Hamburg. She was
ordered to stop, then the trawler closed and ordered
the steamer to follow. The German refused to obey
and steamed towards the land, so the Tenby Castle was
compelled to fire a shot into his quarter, and this
caused him to stop. After he had several times refused
to follow. Lieutenant Randell gave him five minutes
and informed him he would either have to accompany
the trawler or else be sunk. The five minutes passed,
the obstinate German still declined, and two minutes
later put his engines ahead and made towards the
shore. It was now an hour since the ship had first
been sighted, so there was nothing for it but for the
trawler to sink her, and she was shelled at the water-
line and sunk four and a half miles away from the

THE LAST PHASE 259

nearest land, her crew of thirteen being handed over
a few hours later to H.M.S. India. Thus a cargo of
4,000 tons of magnetic ore was prevented from
reaching Germany.

Now, it was quite obvious that the information of
these incidents would not be long in reaching Germany
from an agent via Norway. The German Captain
Gayer has stated since the war that news reached
Germany that ' an English auxiliary cruiser was
permanently stationed ' off West Fjord, whose task, he
says, was 'to seize and sink the German steamers
coming with minerals from Narvik.' Therefore, on
August 3, Germany despatched U 22 from Borkum
to West Fjord, and this craft had scarcely taken up her
position when she saw the armed merchant cruiser
India enter West Fjord and torpedoed her at long
range, so that India was sunk. Gayer, who occupied
during the war a high administrative position in the
U-boat service, adds the following statement : ' It
was,' he remarks, ' one of the few instances in which
a submarine found with such precision the object of
attack really intended for it, when the information
had been given by an agent.'

We pass over the intervening years and come to
February, 1918. On the nineteenth of that month
the Q-ship Tay and Tyne had left Lerwick, in the
Shetlands, to perform similar work off the Norwegian
coast, where she arrived on the twenty- second. This
was a little 557-ton steamer, which had been requisi-
tioned at the end of the previous July and fitted out
at liOwestoft with a 4-inch gun aft, suitably hidden,
and a couple of 12-pounders. She was a single-screw
ship, built at Dundee in 1909, having a funnel, two
masts, and the usual derricks. In addition to her
guns she carried one torpedo tube and also smoke-

260 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

making apparatus. She was commanded by Lieu-
tenant Mack, R.N., with whom Lieutenant G. H. P.
Muhlhauser, R.N.R., went as second in command,
both of these officers, as the reader will remember,
having served together in the Q- sailing-ship Result.
Having commissioned the new ship. Lieutenant Mack
then took her from Lowestoft to the secluded area of
the Wash in order to practise gunnery and the
' panic ' party arrangements. Months passed, but on
February 22 something of interest happened, for some
distance below the Vigten Islands a couple of
steamers were sighted, so course was then altered
to cut off the one that was bound to the southward.
When 1,000 yards away the latter hoisted German
colours, so Tay and Tyne (alias Cheriton and
Dundreary) hoisted the international signal 'M.N.'
to stop immediately. This ship was the Dusseldorf^
a nine-year-old, typical German flush- decked tramp
of 1,200 tons, with 1,700 tons of magnetic ore on
board. As she disregarded the signal, a shell was
fired across her bows, and this caused her to stop and
hoist the answering pennant. Lieutenant Mack then
steamed round the stern, keeping her covered all the
time with his gun, and now took up station inshore
of the German.

Dusseldorf had been completely taken by surprise,
and never supposed that this little steamer could
possibly be a trap-ship. Tay and Tyne lowered a
boat containing several of the British crew, under
Lieutenant Muhlhauser, armed with revolvers and
rifles, and this guard then boarded the enemy, on
board whom were found a couple of Norwegian
Customs House officials and two Norse pilots. Lieu-
tenant Muhlhauser then ordered the German captain
to muster his crew, which he promptly did, and now

THE LAST PHASE 261

the terrified crew were given five minutes to collect
their clothes. The captain handed over the ship's
papers and protested that the ship was in territorial
waters. Eleven Germans and the four Norwegians
were then transferred to the Q-ship, who landed the
four Norwegians in the Dusseldorfs boat at Sves
Fjord, and this boat they were allowed to keep. The
British boarding party had consisted of a dozen men,
but Lieutenant Sluhlhauser sent three back to the
Q-ship, and retained three German stokers and the
two German engineers in order to get the prize back
to England, these five men working under the super-
vision of one of the Tay and Tyne's crew.

Having received orders to proceed, Lieutenant
Muhlhauser then began to take the Dusseldorf across
the North Sea. I am indebted to him for having
allowed me to see his private diary of this voyage, and
I think it well illustrates the unexpected and sur-
prising difficulties with which Q-ship officers so
frequently found themselves confronted. Having
parted company with the J'ay and Tyne, Dusseldorfs
new captain proceeded to look for navigational
facilities, but in this respect she was amazingly ill-
found. The only chart available showed just a small
portion of the North Sea, and there was no sextant
in the ship. This was a delightful predicament, for
with all her magnetic ore it could be taken for certain
that the compass would have serious deviation, and,
having regard to the number of minefields in the
North Sea and the physical dangers of the east coast
of Scotland, it was a gloomy prelude to crossing from
one side to the other.

Having been round the ship, it was now possible
to ascertain her character. She was not a thing of
beauty, there was no electric light, the engine-room

262 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

was in a neglected condition, and round it were the
engineers' cabins, the skipper and mate being berthed
in a deckhouse under the bridge. However, as the
prize dipped to the North Sea swell it was a joy to
realize that all the hundreds of tons of ore would not
reach Germany. At this late stage of the war she
was very short of this commodity, and the loss to her
would be felt. The Tay and Tyne had certainly
made a most useful capture. Fortunately there was
found plenty of food in Dusseldorf, and enough coal
for about three weeks, so if only a few days' fine, clear
weather could be ensured, the ship would soon be
across and anchored in a British harbour. That, of
course, was always supposing there was no encounter-
ing of mines or torpedoes.

By dusk of the first day the Halten Lighthouse
(Lat. 64.10 N., Long. 9.25 E.) was made out, and then
the night set in. For some time the glass had been
falling, and before the morning it was blowing a gale
of wind with a heavy sea. Loaded with such a cargo
Dusseldo7]f made very heavy weather, and was like a
half- tide rock most of the time, and during the next
day made only 30 miles in twenty-four hours !
Strictly speaking, this is not the North Sea but the
Atlantic Ocean, and February is as bad a month as
you could choose to be off this Norwegian coast in a
ship that could make good only a mile an hour. By
the afternoon of the twenty-fourth the Romsdal
Islands had been sighted, and then, fearing lest the
enemy might have received news of the capture and
sent out some of his light forces, the ship was kept
well out from the shore. The Germans should never
get this ore, and arrangements were made to sink her
rather than give her up.

With no chart, a doubtful compass, and so few

THE LAST PHASE 263

appliances, was there ever an Atlantic voyage made
under more casual circumstances ? Bearings were
taken of the Pole Star and Sirius in order to get a
check on the compass, and the ship proceeded roughly
on a W.S.\V. course. During the twenty-fifth and
twenty-sixth it blew a westerly gale, and the seas
crashed over her without mercy. Owing to the cargo
being heavy and stowed low, the Dusseldorf dh^Vdyed
a quick, lively roll, and already had broken down
twice, when for a third time on the evening of the
twenty-sixth she again stopped. She was now four
days out, and the captain was a little anxious as to his
position, but it was impossible to ascertain it. A cast
of the lead was taken and bottom was found at thirty
fathoms. From this it was assumed that they were
now somewhere near the Outer Skerries (East of the
Shetlands) ; and inasmuch as it was believed there
was a German minefield, laid this year, not far away,
anxiety was in nowise lessened. As soon as the
repairs had been effected, course was altered to south-
east for 16 miles, then south for the same distance,
and north-west in the hope of making the land. This
was done, but no land appeared, and it was blowing
a gale from the north-west. Whether the ship was
now in the North Sea or whether she had overshot
the Shetlands and got the other side of Scotland,
who could say ? Neither the error of the compass
nor the error of the log could be known. It was now
the twenty-seventh, and they might be north, south,
east, or west of the Shetlands, but, on the whole,
Lieutenant IMuhlhauser believed he was in the North
Sea, so decided to run south until well clear of the
Moray Firth minefields, and then south-west until
the land was picked up.

The twenty-eighth of February passed without land

264 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

being sighted, and there was always the horrible
possibility that suddenly the ship might strike the
shore in the darkness. It was a long-drawn-out
period of suspense, aggravated by bad weather and
the presence of mines and submarines. But as spring
follows winter and dawn comes after night, so at
length there came relief At six in the morning of
the first of March a light was picked up on the star-
board bow, which, on consulting a nautical almanack,
was identified as the Bell Rock (east of the Tay).
Continuing further south, two trawlers and an armed
yacht were sighted off JMay Island, so a signal was
sent through the yacht to Admiral Startin at Granton
reporting the arrival of a prize captured by Tay and
Tyne, and, in due course, having steamed up the
Firth of Forth, Dusseldorf at last came to anchor and
reported herself. It had been a plucky voyage made
under the worst conditions, and many an officer has
been decorated for an achievement less than this.

As for Tay and Tyne, she, too, had passed through
a trying period. After landing the Norwegian pilots
and Customs House officials in Sves Fjord she had
steamed out to sea and made bad weather of the gale,
water even pouring into the engine-room ; but she
had been saved from foundering by taking shelter in
a Norwegian fjord, and next day cruised about the
coast looking for more ore ships, but had no further
luck, so on February 25 shaped a course for Lerwick,
where she duly arrived, and the German prisoners
were taken out of the fo'c'sle and handed over to the
naval authorities.

In the following month Tay and Tyne, accom-
panied by another Q-ship named the Glendale, was
again off the Norwegian coast on the look-out for ore
ships, just as in Elizabethan days our ancestral seamen

THE LAST PHASE 265

were in a western sea looking out for the Spanish
ships with their rich cargoes. Glendale (ahas Speed-
well II. and Q 23) was a disguised trawler of 273 tons
belonging to Granton, and armed with a couple of
12-pounders, a 6-pounder, and two torpedoes. On
the twenty-first of March, Glendale was oif the Oxnaes
Lighthouse when she captured the German S.S.
Valeria with 2,200 tons of ore. In vile weather
these three ships then started to cross to Lerwick,
but, after they had got part of the way across,
Valeiia's small supply of .coal gave out, so on the
twenty-third she had to be abandoned and then sunk
by the shelling from the two Q-ships, the crew having
been previously taken off by boats, while both Q-ships
poured oil on to the sea. Although Valeria never
reached a British port this was most useful work ; for
not only was the ore prevented from reaching Ger-
many, but they were deprived of a brand-new 1,000-
ton ship. Her captain, who, together with the rest of
the crew, was brought into Lerwick, had only just left
the German Navy, and this was his first trip. In-
cidents such as these show what excellent service can
be rendered in naval warfare irrespective of the size of
ships and of adverse circumstances, provided only that
the officers have zeal and determination. The risks
run by these two small ships were very great when we
consider the manner in which our Scandinavian con-
voys had been cut up in spite of destroyer protection.
Conversely, seeing how necessary for the prosecution
of the war these supplies of ore were to Germany, is
it not a little surprising that she did not station a
submarine off the Norwegian coast to act as escort,
submerged, and then torpedo the Tay and Tyne as
soon as she began to close the ore ship ? One of her
smaller submarines could surely have been spared for

266 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

such an undertaking, and it would have been, from
their point of view, more than worth while.

Finally, we have to relate the fight of another small
coasting steamer transformed into a Q-ship. This
was the Stockforce (alias Chary ce), which had been
requisitioned at Cardiff at the beginning of 1918, and
then armed with a couple of 4-inch guns, a 12-pounder,
and a 3-pounder. Her captain was Lieutenant Harold
Auten, D.S.C., R.N.R., who had had a great deal of
experience in Q-ships under Admiral Bayly, and had
recently commanded the Q-ship Heatlier. On the
thirtieth of July, 1918, Stockforce was about 25 miles
south-west of the Start, steaming along a westerly
course at 7\ knots, the time being just before five in
the afternoon, when the track of a torpedo was seen
on the starboard beam coming straight on for the
ship. The crew were sent to their stations, the helm
was put hard aport and engines full speed astern, in
the hope of avoiding the torpedo ; but it was too late.
The ship was struck on the starboard side abreast of
No. 1. hatch, putting the forward gun out of action,
entirely wrecking the fore part of the ship, including
the bridge, and w^ounding three ratings and an officer.

As soon as the torpedo had exploded there came a
tremendous shower of timber, which had been packed
in the hold for flotation purposes, and besides these
12-pounder shells, hatches, and other debris came
falling on to the bridge and fore part of the ship,
wounding the first lieutenant, the navigating officer,
two ratings, and adding to the injuries of the forward
gun. All this had happened as the result of one
torpedo. The enemy, perhaps, being homeward
bound with a spare torpedo in his tube, had not
hesitated to use such a weapon on a small coaster
instead of employing his guns. Stockforce had been

\

THE LAST PHASE 267

fairly caught and was settling down by the head.
The ' abandon ship ' party then cleared away their
boat and went through their usual make-believe,
whilst the ship's surgeon had the wounded taken down
to the 'tween deck, where their injuries could be
attended to. Here it was none too safe, for the bulk-
heads had been weakened by the explosion so that
the water flowed aft, Hooding the magazine and
'tween decks to a depth of three feet, and thereby
rendering the work of the surgeon not merely difficult
but hazardous.

Whilst the ' panic ' party were rowing ahead of the
ship, the rest lay at their stations on board, behaving
with the greatest equanimity and coolness, while
Lieutenant Auten, as the fore-control and bridge were
out of action, exercised his command from the after
gunhouse. Five minutes later the submarine rose to
the surface half a mile distant, and, being very shy,
remained there for a quarter of an hour carefully
watching Stockforce for any suspicious move. In
accordance with the training, the ' panic ' party then
began to row down the port side towards the port
quarter so as to draw the enemy on, and this manoeuvre
succeeded in fooling the German, who now came
down the port side as required, being only about three
hundred yards away. As soon as the enemy was full
on the beam of Stockforce, the latter handed him the
surprise packet. It was now 5.40 p.m. as both 4-inch
guns opened fire from the Q-sliip. The first round
from the after gun passed over the conning- tower,
carrying away the wireless and one of the periscopes,
the second shell hitting the conning-tower in the
centre and blowing it away, sending high into the air
a man who was in the conning-tower.

Stockforce s second 4 -inch gun mth her first shot

268 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

hit the enemy on the water-Hne at the base where the
conning-tower had been, tearing the submarine right
open and blowing out many of the crew. A large
volume of blue smoke began to pour out of the
U-boat, and shell after shell was then poured into the
German until she sank by the stern, by which time
twenty direct hits had been obtained. The enemy
submerged, leaving a quantity of debris on the water,
and was never seen again. But in the meantime
Stockforce was in a critical condition, and every
attempt now was made to save her from foundering.
Having recalled the ' panic ' party, the engines were
put full speed ahead in the effort to reach the nearest
land and beach her, as she was rapidly listing to star-
board and going down by the head. At 6.30 p.m.
two trawlers were sighted who closed the ship, and as
Stockforce was already practically awash forward and
along most of the starboard side, all the wounded and
half the men were now transferred to one of these
trawlers.

With a volunteer crew the Q-ship then went ahead
again, but the engine-room was leaking badly, and in
the stokehold there were several feet of water, and it
was clear that the life of Stockforce was a matter of a
very short while, for the water in both engine-room
and stokehold began now to rise rapidly and the ship
was about to sink. But two British torpedo-boats
had now arrived, and at 5.15 p.m., when off Bolt
Tail, with Plymouth Sound only a few miles off, the
Stockforce's captain had to send the rest of the ship's
company from the sinking ship, while he remained on
board with only the first lieutenant. Five minutes
later a dinghy from one of the torpedo-boats fetched
them also, and after only another five minutes Stock-
force sank. It had been a plucky fight and a fine

THE LAST PHASE 269

endeavour to save the ship, but this was not to be
successful. Handsome awards were made in respect
of these efforts, the coveted Victoria Cross being
conferred on Lieutenant Auten, whilst the Distin-
guished Service Cross was bestowed on Lieutenant
H. F. Rainey, R.N.R., Lieutenant L. E. Workman,
R.N.R., Lieutenant W. J. Grey, R.N.R., Sub-
Lieutenant G. S. Anakin, R.N.R., Assistant- Pay-
master A. D. Davis, R.N.R., and Surgeon-Probationer
G. E. Strahan, R.N.V.R.

This last fight represents Q-ship warfare at its
highest point of development. We have here the
experienced officers of each nation, knowing all the
tricks of their highly specialized profession, fighting
each other in the most cunningly devised craft.
Each of these vessels represented all that could be
done by a combination of intellect and engineering
skill, so that when the two should meet in the sea
arena the fight could not fail to be interesting. After
the preliminary moves had been made how would
matters stand ? The answer is that in the final appeal
it was largely a matter of luck. Now, in the duel
we have just witnessed the first round of the match
was undoubtedly won by the submarine, whose
torpedo got home and wrought such damage that the
ship was doomed from the first. Round number two,
when the ' panic ' party succeeded in luring the enemy
on to the requisite range and bearing, was distinctly
in favour of Stockforce. So also was round three, in
which she managed to shell him so thoroughly. But
here the element of luck enters and characterizes the
rest of the day. To all intents and purposes the sub-
marine was destroyed and sunk ; whereas, in point
of fact, notwithstanding her grievous wounds, she
managed to get back home. It was touch-and-go

270 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

with her, as it had been with von Spiegel's submarine
after being shelled by the Prize, but good fortune
just weighed the scales and prevented a loss. On
the other hand, Stoclxforce might have had the luck
just to keep afloat a few more miles and get into
Plymouth Sound, but as it was she sank a little too
soon, and thus the actual result of the encounter
might by some be called indecisive, or even in
favour of the enemy. This is not so. To us the loss
of a small coaster turned temporarily into a man-of-
war was of little consequence. A similar ship, the
Suffolk Coast, would soon be picked up and then
turned over to the dockyard experts to be fitted out ;
, but in the case of a submarine there were only limited
numbers. That particular U-boat would now have a
long list of defects and be a non-combatant for a long
time, and her crew would morally be seriously affected
by their miraculous escape, and they would not forget
to pass on their impressions to their opposite numbers
in other submarines.

It was rather the cumulative effect of Q-ships,
destroyers, mines, auxiliary patrol craft, depth charges,
hydrophones, convoys, and good staff work which
broke the spirit of the German submarine menace, so
that if the war had continued much longer U-boats
would have been thwarted except within certain
limits of the North Sea. Every weapon has its rise
and fall in the sphere of usefulness ; the shell is
repelled by armour-plate, the Zeppelin is destroyed
by the aircraft, and so on. So it was with the Q-ship.
It came into being at a time when no other method
seemed likely to deal with submarines adequately. It
became successful, it rose into popularity to its logical
peak, and then began to wane in usefulness as the sub-
marine re-adapted herself to these new conditions.

THE LAST PHASE 271

Afterwards came the period when the mine barrages in
the HeHgoland Bight, in the Dover Strait, and across
the northern end of the North Sea, and the hydro-
phones, in swiftly moving hght craft, made the hfe of
any submarine precarious in his going and coming.
The hydrophone has made such wonderful develop-
ments since the war that in the future within the
narrow seas a submarine would find life a little too
thrilling to be pleasant.

But for a long period the Q-ship did wonders, and
to the officers and men of this service for their bravery
and endurance we owe much. They were taking
enormous risks, and they turned these risks into
successes of great magnitude as long as ever the game
was possible. Most, though not all, of the ships and
officers and men came from the Mercantile Marine,
and in this special force we see the perfect co-opera-
tion between the two branches of our national sea
service for the good of the Empire. The Royal Navy
could teach them all that was to be known about the
technicalities of fighting, could provide them with
guns and expert gunners, could give them all the
facilities of His Majesty's dockyards, whilst at the
same time the Mercantile Marine provided the ships
and the pei^sonnel who knew what were the normal
habits and appearances of a tramp, a collier, or a
coaster. Originally known as special service ships,
as decoys, then as Q-ships, these vessels during 1917
and 1918 were known as H.M.S. So-and-So, but it
was under the designation of Q-ships that they
reached their pinnacle of fame, and as such they will
always be known, so it has been thought well thus to
describe them in these pages. But whether we think
of them as mystery ships or as properly commissioned
vessels of His Majesty's Navy, there will ever remain

272 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

for them a niche in our great sea story, and the valour
of all ranks and ratings in all kinds of these odd craft,
amid every possible condition of difficulty and danger,
should be to those who come after an immortal lesson
and a standard of duty to the rising race of British
seamanhood. Otherwise these men toiled and endured
and died in vain.

I

INDEX

The names of Q-stiips are in heavy-faced type.

Acton, 161

Alcala. See Q 19

Alexander, C. J., Lieutenant, R.N.R.,

164
Alijssum, H.iM.S., 120, 122-3
Amiral Ganteaume, 7
Anakin, G. S., Sub-Lieutenant, R.N.R.,

260
Andalusiati, 9
Aniylo-Oolunibian, 26
Antwerp (formerly Vienna), 8, 9, 24,

235
Arabic, 20, 32, 132

Armstrong, M., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 67
Arvonian {Santee, Bendish), 231-4
Athos. See Glen
Attach, H. M.S., 211
Attentive, H.M.S., 7
Aubrietia. See Q 13
Aud, 140
Auten, Harold, Lieutenant, R.N.R.,

164, 266-9

Baqdale,H.M.T.,U-h

Baralong ( Wijandra), 20-3, 25, 26-31, 41,

104, 109
Baron Ardrossan, 34
Baron Napier, 33-5
Baron Rose, 190
Barranca. See Q 3
Bartel, Leutnant Karl, 116
Bayard, 77
Bayly, Admiral Sir Lewis, 46, 104, 198,

203, 215, 233, 246, 247, 266
Bayonne, 123
Beaton, W. D., Lieutenant, R.N.R.

146
Begonia, 139, 163
Bendish. See Arvonian
Berlin, 161
Bernays, Leopold A., Commander

R.N., 161-3
Beryl, H.M.Y.,im
Beswick, W., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 41,

43
Betsy Jameson, 77
Bidart, 247
Blackwood, M. B. R., Commander,

R.N.,242, 245
Blair, A. D., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 61
Blessing, 57

Bluebell, H.M.S., 179,233
Boggs, L. S. , Lieut. - Commander.

R.N.R.,246
Bolham. See Sarah Colehrooh
Bombala ( Willow Branch), 235-6

27

Bonner, C. G., Lieutenant, R.N.R. ,

205, 207, 212
Bracondale. See Chagford
Bradford City (Saros), 31, lOl
Bremen, 139

Brewer, Skipper, R.N.R., 145, 149
Brig 10. See Q 17
Brig 11. See Q 22
Brown Mouse, 77, 78
Buttercup, II. M.S., 197

Camelia, H. M.S., 160

Campbell, Captain Gordon, R.N., 24,

39-46, 109, 161, 192-208, 246
Canadian, 120
Candytuft, 174-6
Capelle, Admiral von, 134
Carrigan Head, 48-9
Casement, Sir R. , 140
CedricH.M.S., 110
Century. See Penhallow
Chagford [Bracondale), 228-31
Chancellor, 26
Charles, F. W., Lieutenant, R.N.R.,

238
Charyce. See Stochforce
Cheero, 55-6

Chariton. See Tai/ and Ti/ne
Christopher, H.M.S., 167, i71, 174, 211
Cochrane, W. O'G. , Captain, R.N.,

174-5
Colville, Admiral Sir Stanley, 13, 214
Commissioner, 238
Crocus, B.3I.S.,203
Crompton, Ober-Leutnant, 28, 30
CuUist ( Westphalia, Jwrassic, Hayling,

Prim), 164, 166-8
Cummings, U.S.S., 233
Cushing, U.S.S., 200, 203
Cymric, 189-90

Daffodil, H.3I.S., 165

Dag. See Result

Dane, Commander, R.N. , 234

Dargle, 77, 177, 190

Davis, A. D., Assistant-Paymaster,

R.N.R., 269
Deutschland, 139, 234
Donlevon {B aven.it one), 159, 160
Doubleday, G. H. D., Sub-Lieutenant,

R.N.R., 167
Douglas, S. C, Commander, R.N. , 234
Dowie, J. M., Temporary Engineer,

R.N.R., 30
Drayton, U.S.S., 165
Dreadnought, H.M.S., 9

3 18

274 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Duff, Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander, 227

Dunclutha, 235

Buncombe, 17

Dundreary. See Tay and Tyne

Dunois, 107-8

Dunraven, 203-12

Dusseldorf, 260-4

E 13, H.M. Submarine, 23

Echunga. See Q 3

Editii E. Cummins. See Fresh Hope

Eigler, Ingenieur-Aspirant, 116

Elixir. See Q 30

Elizabeth, 189

Else. See Q 21

Errington, Lieutenant, R.N.E., 175-6

Eudora, 193

Falaba, 31

Fame. See Revenqe

First Prize. See Q 21

Flying Sportsman, H.M. Tug, 198

Flying Spray, H.M. Tug, 160

Fort George, 239

Foss, 211

Frank, F. A., Lieut. - Commander,
R.N.E., 105-6, 164

Frederick Arp, 258

Fresh Hope [Edith E. Cummins, Iro-
quois), 189-90

Friswell. See Pargust

G and E, 20

G.L.M. See George L. Muir

G. L. Munro. See George L. Muir

Gaelic. See Q 22

Gayer, Captain, 259

George L. Muir (G. L. Munro, G.L.M.,

Padre), 177
Glen [Sidney, Athos), 77-9, 180-4
Glendale. See Q 23
Glenfoyle. See Stonecrop
Glen Isla, 17
Glitra, 7
Gobo. See Q 22
Grenfell, F. H., Captain, R.N., 109-17,

124, 160, 214-6
Grey, W. J., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 269
Gunner, 11, 237
Guy, B. J. D. , Lieut. -Commander,

R.N., 35-6, 236

HadziaTca, 173

Halcyon, H.M.S., 90

Hallwright, W. W., Lieut. -Commander,

R.N.,141
Hannaford, Skipper R. W.. E.N.R., 64
Hannah, Lieutenant, R.N.V.R., 150
Hanrahan, D. C. , Commander, U.S.N.,

232-3
Hansen, Lieut. -Commander, 26, 29

Harlech Castle, H.M. Travjler, 18&
Harvey, H. W., Lieutenant, R.N.V.R.,

55
Hayes, J., Sub-Lieutenant, R.N.R., 57
Hayling. See Cullist
Heather. See Q 16
Helgoland. See Q 17
Herbert, Godfrey, Commander, R.N.,

8, 48-9, 235
Hereford, P. R., Lieutenant, 212
Hermes, H.M.S., 7
Hesione, 26

Hick, Captain AUanson, 30-1
Hobbyhawk. See Telesia
Hodson, G. L., Lieut. -Commander,

R.N., 33-4
Horley. See Q 17
Hudson, C. H., Lieutenant, R.N.R.,

239-40
Hughes, E. L., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 57
Hughes, T., Lieutenant, E.N.R., 74-5
Hutchinson, E. , Lieutenant, R.N.R., 130

Imogene, 189-90

Ina Williams, H.M. Traioler, 46

India, H.M. S., 258-9

Intaba, 139

Invercauld, 120

Inverlyon, 20

lolanda,H.M.Y.,1?,&

Mo, 193

Iroquois. See Fresh Hope

Irvine, G., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 178

Island Queen. See Q 19

Jeffrey, D. G., Lieutenant, R.N.R,,

228-31, 234
Jellicoe, Admiral Viscount, 10, 152, 157,

223
Jiirassic. See Cullist

Kaye, A.B., R.N.R., 40

Kermes, 57

Kerr, J., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 74

Keyes, Adrian, Commander, R.N., 173

Lalmrnum, H.M.S., 197

Lady Olive. See Q 18

Lady Patricia. See Paxton

Laggan [Pladda), 104, 164

Lammeroo. See Rememhrance

Lawrence, Skipper, J. H., R.N.R., 240

Lawrie, J., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 69-75

Leonidas, H.M.S., 128

Linsdell, 80

Lisette, 78

Lodorer. See Q 5

Lodsen, 49

Louise, 16

Loveless, Engineer-Lieutenant, 43

Luneda, H.M, I'rawler, 198

INDEX

275

Lusitania, 13, 31, 32, 132, 2-15
Lyons, 9, 25

McClure, Sab-Lieutenant, R.N.R., 33
Mack, P. J., Lieutenant, R.N., 80, 86,

260
McLeod. J. K., Lieut. -Commander,

R.N., 164,225
McLeod, W., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 141
Malachite, 7
Malndand, 258
Manford. See Q 7
Maracaio. See Q 28
Marg^t, 32-5
Marshfort, 234
Marx, Admiral, 101, 160
Mary B. MitcheU. See Q 9
Mary Rose, H.M.S., 138
Mathesou, C. G., Lieut. -Commander,

R.N.R., 170-1
Mavis. See Q 26
Maxwell, F. N., 13
Meade, Skipper, R.N.R., 146-7
Melville, Lord, 66
Merops. See Q 28
Mitchell. See Q 9
Moewe, 226, 235
Morris, K., Sub-Lieutenant, R.N.R.,

79, 184
Muhlhauser, G. H. P., Lieutenant,

R.N.R.,80-2, 86, 260-4
Myosotis, H.M.S., 160

Naylor, Cedric, Lieutenant, R.N.R.,

124-5, 128, 130
Nicosian, 22-3
Niger, H. M.S., 7
Noake, Basil S., Lieut. -Commander,

R.N., 163
Noma, U.S.S., 211
Noodt, Ober-Leutnant Erich, 116
Nunn, R. A., Assistant-Paymaster,

RN.R., 212
Nyroca. See Q 26

Olphert, W. , Lieut. - Commander,

K.N.R., 164
Ooma, 235
Oracle, H. M.S., 231
Orestes, H. M.S., 171

Padre. See Georqe L. Muir
Paladin, H.M. Tug, 233
Pallas, 257

Pangloss. See Pargust
Pargust ( Vittoria, Snail, Friswell, Pan-
gloss), 161, 199-204, 231, 234
Paxton (Lady Patricia), 104
Penhallow (Century), 31
Penshnrst. See Q 7
Periere, Arnanld de la, 93

Pet, 20

Phillips, Lieutenant, R.N.R., 175
Pitcher, E., Petty Officer, 212
Pladda. See Laggan
Powell, Commander Frank, 139
Prevalent, 78
Prim. See Cullist
Primo, 7

Prince Charles, 13-16
Princess Ena, 24
Privet. See Q 19
Prize. See Q 21
Probus. See Q .30

Purdy, James, Engineer Sub-Lieuten-
ant, R.N. R., 49

Q 3 (Barranca, Echunga), 221, 234

Q 5 (Lodorer, Farnhorough), 24, 40-7, 109,

192-9, 227
Q 7 (Penshurst, Manford), 17, 47, 109-30,

161, 213-22
Q 9 (Mary B. Mitchell, Mary Y. Jose,

Jeannette, Brine, Neptun, Marie The-

rese. Eider, Arius, Cancalais), 67-74
Q 12 (Tulip), 138

Q 13 (Auhrietia), 101, 139, 160, 237
Q 15 (Salvia), 98-101, 139, 164
Q 16 (Heather), 17, 139, 141, 164, 266
Q 17 (Helgoland, Horley, Brig 10), 59-64,

78, 190
Q 18 (Lady Olive), 104
Q 19 (Privet, Island Queen, Swisher,

Alcala), 170-1
Q 21 (Else, First Prize, Prize) 77, 144
Q 22 (Gaelic, Goho, Brig 11), 65-6, 178-9,

183-4
Q 23 (Glendale, Speedwell II.), 264-5
Q 25, 104

Q 26 (Mavis, Nyroca), 104, 172-4
Q 28 (Merops, Maracaio), 77, 190
Q 30 (Thirza, Beady, Probus, Elixir), 18,

185-9
Quickly, 11

Rainey, H. F., Lieutenant, R.N.R.,269
Randell, J. T., Lieutenant, R.N.R.,

256-8
Ravenstone. See Donlevon
Ready. See Q 30
Remembrance (Lammeroo), 31
Rentoul, 189, 190
Result (Dag), 77, 79, 81-6, 260
Revenge (Fame), 56
Rival II., H.M. Drifter, 150
Rolfe, C. N., Lieut. -Commander, R.N.,

164
Rosskeen, 238

Salvia. See Q 15

Sanders, W. E. L., Lieut. -Commander,
R.N.R.,60, 61, 114,157

276 Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Santee. See Arvonian

Sarah Colebrooke (Bolham), 77

Sardinia, 70-1

Saros. See Bradford City

Saxon, H.M. Trawler, 230-1

Scheer, Admiral von, 133

Schwieper, Lient. -Commander, 244

Scott, W. F., Lieutenant, K.N.E., 55

Sidney. See Glen

Simpson, S. H., Commander, R.N.,164,
167, 168

Sims, Admiral, 231-2

Smart, R. C. C, Lieut. -Commander,
KN.,101

Smith, J. S., Temporary Engineer Sub-
Lieutenant, R.N.R., 41, 44

Smith, Skipper W., R.N.R., 64

Snail. See Pargust

SoeraJcarta, 45

Speedwell, 238

Speedwell II. See Q 23

Speed>j,H.M.S., 81

Spence, G., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 167

Spencer, J. G., Lieutenant, R.N.R. ,
14

Spiegel, Lieut. - Commander Freiherr
von, 145-8

Springwell, 35-6

Starmount, 233

Startin, Admiral, 10

Stockforce (Charyce), 247, 266-70

Stonecrop (Glenfoyh), 242-5

Strahan, G. E., Surgeon-Probationer,
R.N.V.R.,269

Sfrathallan, H.M. Traiuler, 239

Strathearn, H.M. Traioler, 239

Strumbles, 57

Stuart, R. N., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 203

Suffolk Coast, 220, 247-9

Sussex, 132

Swisher. See Q 19

Tamarisk, 139, 164, 246

Tay and Tyne {Cheriton, Dundreary),

259-62, 264-5
Telesia {Hobby haioTc), 53-6
Tenby Castle, 256-8
Thalia, 57
Thirza. See Q 30
Thornhill. See Werribee
Torrent, H.M.S., 91
Tremayne, 175
Tulip. See Q 12
Turnbull, R. J., Lieutenant, R.N.R.,

79, 180-1
Tweedie, Lieutenant, R.N.R. , 33

U 9, 6; U18,7; U 20, 245; U 21, 7;

U 22, 259; U 23, 10; U 27, 22, 26;

i/ 29, 9 ; U 34, 172 ; f/ 36, 16 ; U 40,

10; U 41, 26, 28-31, 40; U 43, 145;

f/ 44, 231; f/ 62, 138; t/68,42; ^783,

194-6 ; U 84, 120 ; U 88, 242-4 ; U 93,

145-52
UB 4, 20; UB 13, 54; UB 19, 116;

UB 37, 119; UB 39, 180-1; UB 48,

155-6 ; UB 63, 240
UC 3, 56 ; UC 29, 202 ; UG 45, 81, 86
Underwing, 234
Urbino, 28, 30

Vala, 16, 17, 47, 161-2

Valeria, 265

Vereker. See Viola

Victorian, H.M.S., 257

Vienna. See Antwerp

Vindictire, H.M.S., 24

Viola {Verelcer), 138, 164, 189-90, 233

Vittoria, 7

Vittoria. See Pargust

W. S. Bailey, 239-40

Wadsworth, 104

Wardlaw, Mark, Lieiitenant, R.N., 14-

16
Warrington, U.S.S., 165
Wegener, Lieut. -Commander, 23
Wellholme. See Werribee
'Werribee (ThornJiill, Wellholme, Wonrja-

we«a), 31, 35-6, 236-7
Westmore, G. G., Lieutenant, R.N.R.,

62,64
Westphalia. See Cullist
Wexford Coast, 246

Wharton, W. S., Skipper, R.N.R., 53-4
TT liitefriars, 174
Wiley side, 111
Williams, J. W., Lieutenant, R.N.R,,

139, 164
Williams, Seaman W., R.N.R., 203
Willow Branch. See Bombala
Wilmot-Smith, A., Lieut. -Commander,

R.N., 26, 29, 30
Wolf, 226

Wonganella. See Werribee
Workman, L. E., Lieutenant, R.N.R.,

269
Wreford, 90
Wyandra. See Baralong

Ziegler, Sub-Lieutenant, 151-3
Zinnia, H.M.S., 203
Zylpha, 24, 47, 164-5

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